DFW homeownership falls; millennials balk at buying

DALLAS-FORT WORTH – DFW has one of the lowest big-city homeownership rates in the country, comparable to Los Angeles, New York City and San Francisco as cities that have the smallest share of owners vs. renters, according to a new Census Bureau report.

At the end of 2014, DFW’s homeownership rate stood at just over 56 percent — the lowest in Texas and way below the national rate of 64 percent in fourth quarter 2014. DFW’s homeownership rate has declined from a recent peak of 65.2 percent in mid-2010.

Growth and prosperity are part of the reason homeownership rates are falling.

“Young people flock to Dallas — they have to go where they think the jobs are,” said Dr. James Gaines, an economist with the Real Estate Center at Texas A&M University. “All the job creation is attracting recent college graduates and people looking for work."

"And they rent because they don’t have equity built up for down payments and they are just starting a job,” Gaines said. “Most of them are single, and they don’t want to get tied down with a house.”

At the start of 2015, there were more apartments under construction in North Texas than single-family homes. The DFW area has the fastest-growing apartment market in the country, with more than 30,000 units in the development pipeline.

“The millennials don’t seem to have as strong a desire to be a homeowner as the baby boomers did,” Gaines said. “They are getting married later and having kids later.”

Less than 30 percent of Texas homebuyers are first-timers — a number lower than the national ratios.