After releasing a report showing that about a quarter of the single-family homes in Fort Worth are , city staff have clarified that the majority of those homes are locally owned by mom-and-pop landlords rather than institutional investors.
Of the 262,946 single-family homes in Fort Worth, 23.3% or 61,163 homes, are commercially owned, according to the updated staff report. About 9.6%, or 5,857 homes, are owned by national investor companies. The other 13.7% of the commercially owned homes are held by local landlords who live in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.
City staff that about 26% of Fort Worth鈥檚 single-family homes are commercially owned, but they lowered that estimate in a new report presented to City Council鈥檚 Neighborhood Quality and Revitalization Committee on June 11. The new report analyzed data compiled from the Tarrant, Denton, Parker and Wise county appraisal districts, which all include homes located in Fort Worth.
Christianne Simmons, chief transformation officer for the city鈥檚 FWLab, said during the committee meeting that the previous report was only a 鈥渇irst pass鈥� at this topic, while the new report provides a fuller picture of Fort Worth鈥檚 home ownership.
鈥淚f you read this data on its own, your assumption is most properties in Fort Worth would be owned by investors,鈥� Amy Connolly, assistant neighborhood services director, added. 鈥淏ut actually, most rental properties in Fort Worth are (locally owned).鈥�
Don Allen, president of the Texas Association of Builders, told the Report that people should not be alarmed by the percentage of commercial home ownership in Fort Worth.
鈥淚 don鈥檛 believe that the corporate housing ownership issue is having a significant impact at all on the cost of housing nationwide, and I don鈥檛 believe it鈥檚 having a significant impact on the cost of housing in Fort Worth,鈥� Allen said.
The city staff report defined single-family homes as 鈥渁 residential structure intended for use by one owner as a single dwelling; could be a traditional single-family home, townhome, mobile home or condominium.鈥�
The No. 1 thing impacting the cost of housing, both locally and nationally, is supply and demand, plus the costs builders face when developing new homes, he said. Since the pandemic, the cost of building homes has skyrocketed, which has in turn driven up the cost of existing homes.
鈥淚 would expect that at the end of the day, city staff and City Council are both going to find that while people express concern about [corporate home ownership], this is not something negatively impacting the cost of housing in Fort Worth,鈥� Allen said. 鈥淰ery frankly, the costs and fees that a homebuilder pays to the city of Fort Worth are a lot more impactful.鈥�
He suggested that City Council and staff explore ways to encourage new home development and work with building companies and associations to streamline development processes.
During the June 11 meeting, several council members, including committee chair Jared Williams, asked staff to continue to refine their data analysis. This topic will continue to be revisited at both committee and council meetings, he said.
is a government accountability reporter for the Fort Worth Report. Contact her at cecilia.lenzen@fortworthreport.org or on X.
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