• Reports

2025 Rental Housing Needs Assessment

February 2026

This is an updated version of the 2024 report.

This year’s report is anchored by four core insights:

1) It’s hard to be a renter in Dallas. Of the 304K renter households in Dallas, 59% are low income (≤80% Area Median Income) and 50% are cost burdened, meaning they spend more than 30% of their gross income on housing.

2) There is a shortage of affordable rental units for very low-income households. For households that earn at or below 50% AMI ($52K for a family of four), the City of Dallas is short 46K affordable rental units — for every 100 households ≤50% AMI, there are just 60 affordable rental units.

3) Dallas is changing. In the past 10 years, Dallas has realized significant growth in the population of seniors (+33%), one- and two-person households (+23% and +19%, respectively), and high-income households earning more than $150K annually (+130%). This rapid growth, however, is juxtaposed with a slight decline (-0.8%) in the population of children, a small increase in households with three or more people (+2%), and a significant decrease in households earning less than $35K (-32%).

4) There are signs of progress, but progress is uneven. After record-high rent growth during the pandemic, renters have recently felt some relief: year-over-year rent growth was largely flat or down slightly in the City of Dallas in 2024 and 2025. An estimated 8,400 multifamily units were delivered in 2024 — 84% market-rate units and 16% income-restricted units. In the past 10 years, educational attainment and household income have both improved significantly, but long-standing inequities persist, and Dallas is the sixth most segregated large city in the U.S.

To achieve a stronger Dallas, housing must be a central issue. Whether your north star is growing the economy, improving the health and wellbeing of Dallas residents, or breaking the cycle of poverty, housing matters.

VIEW REPORT

View more

  • 2024 Rental Housing Needs Assessment

    2024 Update of CPAL’s Rental Housing Needs Assessment analyzes the growing gap of rental housing supply and demand for low-income families.

    • As of 2022, Dallas had a 39,900 unit gap in affordable rental housing. The shortage of affordable housing units is projected to grow to 76,100 units by 2035, driven by an anticipated loss of 54,000 unrestricted affordable housing units.
    • Despite improvement over time in educational attainment and wages, 49% of all renters in the City of Dallas are housing cost burdened, and some renters are disproportionately affected, including Black renters, senior renters, and single parents with children.
    View Report

  • Housing Remediation as an Effective Intervention for Pediatric Asthma

    This issue-brief describes the impacts of asthma in Dallas and how home repair can better asthma outcomes, increase economic mobility, and improve the quality of life for children across Dallas.

    • Asthma is a leading cause of school absenteeism and is costly. In 2023, Dallas County children experienced 1,036 asthma inpatient hospital visits. The combined costs of these visits were ~$10.3M, for an average cost of $9,966 per visit. 
    • The Green and Healthy Homes Initiative estimates that 40% of all asthma episodes are caused by preventable home-based asthma allergens, like dust, pests, and mold.
    View Report

  • Housing Stability for School Success Toolkit

    This framework has been piloted with DISD since 2021-22 on two elementary campuses working with district administrators.

    • This toolkit was designed to equip school district staff to implement family-centered interventions for families that may be at risk of or currently experiencing a housing-related issue.
    • The toolkit includes open-source resources (e.g., family enrollment postcards) and data tools that can be adapted by local school districts and nonprofit organizations working with housing insecure families.
    View Report