After releasing a report showing that about a quarter of the single-family homes in Fort Worth are commercially owned, 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 previously estimated that about 26% of Fort Worth’s single-family homes are commercially owned, but they lowered that estimate in a new report presented to City Council’s 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’s FWLab, said during the committee meeting that the previous report was only a “first pass” at this topic, while the new report provides a fuller picture of Fort Worth’s home ownership.
“If you read this data on its own, your assumption is most properties in Fort Worth would be owned by investors,” Amy Connolly, assistant neighborhood services director, added. “But actually, most rental properties in Fort Worth are (locally owned).”
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.
“I don’t believe that the corporate housing ownership issue is having a significant impact at all on the cost of housing nationwide, and I don’t believe it’s having a significant impact on the cost of housing in Fort Worth,” Allen said.
The city staff report defined single-family homes as “a residential structure intended for use by one owner as a single dwelling; could be a traditional single-family home, townhome, mobile home or condominium.”
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.
“I 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,” Allen said. “Very frankly, the costs and fees that a homebuilder pays to the city of Fort Worth are a lot more impactful.”
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.
Cecilia Lenzen is a government accountability reporter for the Fort Worth Report. Contact her at cecilia.lenzen@fortworthreport.org or @bycecilialenzen on X.
At the Fort Worth Report, news decisions are made independently of our board members and financial supporters. Read more about our editorial independence policy here.
