2023 looks good for the Dallas real estate market, which is in America’s Top 3 alongside Raleigh and Atlanta. Dallas recently earned the high ranking from the National Association of Realtors, in part, for being a place that’s seen significant job growth over the past year, and for being an area where renters can afford to buy homes. The NAR notes that Dallas and Raleigh are two of the fastest-growing employment hubs in the country, with respective 6.5% and 5.1% increases in their numbers of jobs between October 2021 and October 2022.

What sets Dallas apart from the rest?

But the NAR did a much deeper dive before selecting Dallas as one of its top choices. Comparing real estate markets against national averages, the NAR also looked at factors including migration gains, population growth, housing inventory growth, shares of workers teleworking, and the rate of growth of information industry jobs.

Dallas fares particularly well in the tech sector. According to CompTIA’s recent State of the Tech Workforce report, the Dallas-Fort-Worth-Arlington region leads the nation’s metropolitan areas in net tech employment job gains, adding 5,321 new tech jobs in 2022 – more than double the runner-up Seattle and its 2,651 new tech jobs. Over 20 Fortune 500 companies are headquartered in Dallas alone!

Let’s talk money…

Then there’s affordability; according to Bankrate’s cost-of-living calculator, Dallas is a relatively inexpensive place to live compared to other major metropolitan areas. For example, Dallas is 20% more affordable than Chicago and 32% more affordable than Los Angeles. Adding to this affordability, DFW-area home prices are falling at a faster pace than the national average: home prices in the Dallas-Plano-Irving area fell 2.6% from June 2022 to December 2022, according to CoreLogic’s most recent index.

And what about quality of life? U.S. News & World Report ranks Dallas-Fort Worth near the top 20% of the 150 metropolitan areas in America they analyzed, also naming DFW as the #2 place to live in Texas. The media company gives the area high marks for “offering both big-city excitement and quiet, suburban living [with] an interesting mix of Texas pride and cosmopolitan offerings.”