Thanks largely to a rebounding job market, Dallas-Fort Worth apartment owners are faring better than owners in other parts of the country in the COVID-19 market, Greg Willett, chief economist for RealPage, said in a webinar Thursday.
Even so, it isn’t pretty.
The jobs market started the year strong, but D-FW lost 282,000 jobs between February and April after the pandemic hit, Willett said. Some of the jobs have since returned or new ones have replaced them, but the region is still down 152,000 jobs, Willett said in a webinar about Multifamily Housing in DFW put on by ULI.
“That sounds horrible, and it is certainly painful,” Willett said. “We’ve lost about 4 percent. But that 4 percent downsizing is actually one of the better results throughout the country.”
The type of jobs makes a difference, too, he said. DFW has done better than most markets at hanging on to higher-paying positions. Most of the losses are in the hospitality and retail sectors, he said.
Renter retention is up, Willett said. About two-thirds of people who had leases expire in the second quarter of this year ended up staying in place, he said.
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