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Apartment rent price increases in Arlington significantly outpaced income growth from 2012 to 2023, according to city data.

City data shows that the during that time period, with the average household income growing 3.9%. The same report noted that the median household income in Arlington increased only 1% from 2010 to 2023.

Income growth means pay raises, higher paying jobs and other increases in how much money households make.

The report compares rent costs from 2012 because that was the last year Arlington presented a report on multifamily housing costs and income to the city council, according to Sarah Stubblefield, the manager of research and analytics. The report cited data from 2023 because it is the latest data available.

Stubblefield said the city council is limited in ways it can address the cost of rent in Arlington, but it does have options.

"On the income side, bringing in high-paying jobs is a good way to do that and rent, we have programs that can assist with that," Stubblefield told the city council last month. "It is a balance of assistance and making choices that bring in higher-paying jobs and better housing. It鈥檚 challenging and I don鈥檛 think we鈥檙e the only community that鈥檚 experiencing that.鈥�

The change was reflected across neighboring cities, with increases in rent outpacing growth in wages.

Of the cities selected for comparison with Arlington, only Pantego had a decrease in rent costs with a decline of 14.8%. But with that 14.8 percent decrease in rent, Arlington data also showed a 24.7 decrease in median household income, meaning the decrease in rent prices has not kept up with loss in median earning. Grapevine had the highest increase of cities selected for comparison at 47.2%.

Rent prices have been outpacing wage growth across the country for decades.

Researchers at Harvard University鈥檚 Joint Center for Housing Studies found in 2024 that the national median cost of rent from 2001 to 2022. Median income for renters during that same period only increase 2%.

According to the Harvard report, the rent increases have been paired with decreases in earning power for renter households earning less than $75,000 a year while households over that threshold saw wages increase by about 3%.

The study found that renters earning between $30,000 and $75,000 saw median earnings decrease about 2%, while renter households earning less than that saw their median .

The cost of rent has risen across the board.

Households in the report鈥檚 higher income bracket saw an increase of about 27% over those two decades. For the middle income bracket, the study found rent increased by a "staggering" 18% while lower income renters saw the cost of housing increase about 14%, according to the study.

An October 2024 report found that Texans saw housing affordability in early 2024 , meaning it was harder for families to afford median-rent housing.

According to that report, the Covid-19 pandemic exacerbated long-standing problems kicked off during the Great Recession, testing the ability of Texans to find and keep housing within their budget. Fewer new houses were built as a result of the financial crisis in 2007 and 2008, and the pandemic underscored that already existing housing shortage.

As of 2021, Texas lacked 306,000 necessary homes, according to a study from Up for Growth. The comptroller鈥檚 office cited the study, adding that the Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington area saw the largest domestic migrations of all U.S. metro areas from 2020 to 2023.

Rent prices also increased in part because of work-from-home policies during the pandemic, according to the Texas Comptroller鈥檚 Office. The report, citing the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, found that work-from-home policies accounted for more than half of home price increases from 2019 to 2021.

In Arlington specifically, more than half of renters spend 30% or more of their income on housing costs, according to the city's report. That percentage includes rent and utilities.

The number of Arlington residents spending that much on housing has increased, too 鈥� up to 57.8% in 2023 compared to 51.3% in 2012.

The city has already seen more multifamily housing development since 2020 than in the last decade, according to the Arlington's data. From 2010 to 2019, the city saw multifamily housing built on 24 parcels of land. With that number the same from 2020 to 2022, the city is on track to significantly outdo the last decade.

That's still less than in the 2000s, when 102 parcels were used for multifamily housing.

But the future for apartments and other new rent housing isn't certain in Arlington. The city is landlocked 鈥� with 99 square miles in its jurisdiction and no unincorporated territories to annex for future growth, city leaders will have to decide how to handle future needs for more housing.

Council Member Barbara Odom-Wesley, who represents District 8 on the council, asked Stubblefield at the meeting if Arlington has avoided the housing shortage faced across the United States. Stubblefield said she's not sure if the city is facing a housing shortage, but it is facing economic woes for renters.

"There are people who are experiencing rent burden in our city and that鈥檚 evident in the data, but it鈥檚 limited land and what you do with it," Stubblefield told the council. "Those are choices that are policy-driven for you guys."

Planners for Arlington are already working on a new long-range plan to help strategize for the city's growth. Innovate Arlington, the city's in-progress comprehensive plan, will likely see council members and staff make difficult decisions regarding housing development in decades to come.

Federal grants for lower-income families can help soften the impacts of increasing rent and even potentially decreasing wages.

Housing Choice Vouchers, also called Section 8 housing, allow qualifying households to get . These vouchers can be used at properties ranging from single apartments in otherwise non-participating complexes to a single-family house for rent.

According to the report from the city, Arlington saw a total of 910 vouchers distributed to families in 2023. Of those, 630 were used for multifamily housing. The rest were applied to rent for single-family houses or duplexes.

Housing vouchers not only assist low-income families but can also aid people who have disabilities and elderly residents.

But anybody hoping to obtain a housing voucher for Arlington may have to wait a while. The city's website says the waitlist for the program is currently closed and the city will not be absorbing housing vouchers from other jurisdictions.

Got a tip? Email James Hartley at jhartley@kera.org. You can follow James on X @ByJamesHartley.

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