Some people claim Fort Worth is just a sleepy Dallas suburb, and it’s easy to see why.
Sure, it’s got cowboy charm, but when you’re living in Big D’s shadow, things can get confusing. Fort Worthians might shout, “We’ve got culture!” as they herd cattle down Main Street, but let’s face it — Dallas is the one with the skyline that’s always on TV.
If your city’s big claim to fame is being “Where the West begins,” that means somewhere, you’re the beginning of nowhere. And honestly, if you can get there on I-30 in 30 minutes, are you really separate?
Such distinctions apparently lent themselves to some confusion in the drafting of a real estate study examining single-family home rental opportunities in Texas.
Here is some of what CandysDirt reported on the hubbub:
Dallas-area suburbs River Oaks*, Saginaw, and Wylie ranked among the “best locations for single-family home renters” in Texas but overall, they barely made the survey’s top 25 in the state. Why all the asterisks? Here’s a maddening lesson in data science.
National real estate rental search and data site Point2 conducted the study, which surveyed 127 suburbs surrounding Dallas, Fort Worth, Austin, Houston, and San Antonio. It named Wylie as the best Dallas suburb for renters, closely followed by University Park**, and Sachse.
It was here that I noticed that Dallas and Fort Worth were separated for data purposes, categorizing cities like Burleson and Saginaw as Fort Worth suburbs. No sooner had I finished writing the story with Wylie as the lead when I looked back and saw — asterisk number one, *River Oaks actually outranked Wylie because Fort Worth was tabulated as a separate suburb. Had some Dallas bias made me blind to Fort Worth’s high rankings?