“The world is shrinking” is a phrase growing in popularity due to globalization. In Dallas, however, the phrase should be “apartments are shrinking”. The Dallas Observer covered this fact in a recent story, anyone planning a move to Dallas should be aware that apartments are getting smaller and more expensive.

Stephen Young of the Dallas Observer writes, “between 2008 and 2018, the average apartment in Dallas, Fort Worth, Plano and Irving has shrunk between 4 and 8 percent, while rents have gone up by between 40 and 50 percent over the same period, RENTCafé says.”

50% is a fairly significant appreciation in price. Imagine this: You buy a home in 2008 for $300,000. Today, if it went up 50% in value, the home would be worth $450,000. That would be a great investment! But what happens if you didn’t buy in 2008 and are looking to buy now? The prices are more expensive. The Dallas Observer also shared a map of the average size of U.S. apartments by region. Let’s take a look.

Median Apartment Size Map

From a quick glance of the map, one thing is certain: “Everything’s bigger in Texas” except apartment size. The average square footage of an apartment in the Texas region is 867. Overall, the average square footage of an apartment in the U.S. is 882. The Southeast is the big winner with an average of 975 square feet. California, on the other hand, has the least average square foot coming in at 837. Maybe that’s part of the reason so many people are migrating from California to Texas.

Stephen Young continues, “in Dallas proper, the average apartment built in 2008 was 1,033 square feet. This year, the average new apartment measured 952 square feet, a change in size of 8 percent. The overall average apartment size in Dallas is 832 square feet.”

We saw earlier that the Texas region has an average square footage of 867. Dallas coming in at 832 puts the city under the average of the region. As a matter of fact, the average square footage of an apartment in Dallas is comparable to that of an apartment in the California region (837 square feet).

Median Apartment Size Map (also featured photo) is a screenshot by RPS Relocation

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