The other major factor remaking the suburban housing landscape is affordability. An influx of new tenants to these areas as a result of home ownership growing further out of reach. As renters like Mark—who’s lived in his current home for three years—are finding an increasingly untenable situation. He announced that living here is truly not sustainable. This highlights the plight of a vast majority of suburban Dallas-area renters. This trend reflects a larger, painful trend toward home unaffordability that is pushing low- and moderate-income residents out of urban centers.
Tara Raghuveer, executive director of the Tenant Union Federation, has been making the point that the affordability crisis helped kickstart a suburban rental boom. The group’s focus on tenant advocacy sheds light on how these changes impact community dynamics and accessibility to essential services. The change is most dramatic in the major suburban counties surrounding Dallas. Despite its proximity to booming North Texas job centers, homebuying has become far less attainable there than in urban Dallas County.
Mark’s experience is echoed by other renters. Andrew Decker, who lives in Lake Villa, Illinois, hopes to one day buy the modest home he currently rents. The property was sold to him for 340,000 dollars. He said he was adamant and would only agree to purchase it if the price went down to $200,000. We’re hoping to soon move in and transform it into our home sweet home. It sounds great, but unfortunately, it’s just too expensive for us at the moment,” he said. Decker’s sentiment highlights the financial hurdles every would-be homebuyer is experiencing in today’s market.
Facts show that we are witnessing a profound change in the housing environment that has taken shape over the past decade. Indeed, in 2018, purchasing a home in Dallas County was far more difficult than in its surrounding suburbs—with the exception of Tarrant County. By 2023, this scenario reversed dramatically. Rental housing became the hot commodity during this time. Incredibly, 11 of those 20 suburbs experienced increases in rentership of more than 5 percentage points. Perhaps most striking is the 17.6% increase in the share of renters in Dallas suburbs—a significant suburban shift toward a rental lifestyle.
Ask experts about what’s driving this suburban rental boom and a multitude of factors come into play. Jay Parsons notes the emergence of “suburban downtowns,” a trend partially fueled by the pandemic-era shift to remote work. This new suburban lifestyle would still let residents stay near their jobs, but they would experience the index-finger benefits of living, working, and playing all within the suburbs.
“You can still be close to your job. You can be close to nice restaurants and shops but live in a suburban area where you’re still using a car, and you still have probably a rent that’s more affordable than living in most downtowns,” – Jay Parsons.
This trend comes with challenges. Tara Raghuveer warns that as residents move farther from city centers, they may face increased difficulties accessing transportation and employment opportunities. As others leave behind the urban core, they often end up living further away from transit. Yet this distance is often far enough to separate them from job opportunities themselves. This separation can severely deteriorate quality of life and limit access to vital services.
The financial market isn’t making it any easier for would-be homebuyers either. George Ratiu, vice president of research at the National Apartment Association, asserted that the current market conditions render many properties unaffordable. He called a $340,000 sticker shock for Decker’s future abode as “crazy.” Rising interest rates on popular 30-year fixed home loans hover just under 7%, marking levels not seen since before the 2008 financial crisis.
Mark’s guess is that comparable properties in his area would lead to monthly housing payments of $3,000+. He thinks these payments would be 30% more than what he pays for rent now. As inflation drives prices up and interest rates stay high in the wake of the Federal Reserve’s actions, many renters have nowhere to turn.
“The ability to have one payment that covers all your expenses generally — you don’t have to deal with the mortgage payment and the home insurance and maybe the HOA and then a lot of maintenance expense, so on — has been something that for a lot of people has been worth it,” – George Ratiu.
Not only do these market trends paint a picture of an evolving housing market, but they mirror societal changes taking place. As N. Edward Coulson pointed out, families hoping to achieve some degree of stability frequently seek out homes with yards for kids or dogs. You don’t want your kids playing on the street, so you move to the suburbs, you own the land, you have the dog—you want that space,” he said, underscoring the appeal of suburban life, even with its downsides.