Money Stress

Dallas-Fort Worth millennials saddled with some of the highest debt in the U.S., says report

DFW millennials are saddled with debt.

Photo by Getty Images

For millennials, Dallas-Fort Worth is debt central. A new study from online lending marketplace LendingTree shows millennials in the DFW metro area carry some of the highest amount of personal debt among millennials in the country’s 50 largest metros.

DFW ranks No. 6 in the new study — with a median debt of $25,939 — putting it just behind San Antonio, Pittsburgh, Austin, Houston, and Jacksonville, Florida, respectively. Auto loans accounted for 39.9 percent of the average debt for millennials in DFW, with student loans at 33.3 percent, credit cards at 16 percent, personal loan debt at 8.8 percent, and “other” at 1.9 percent.

In the No. 1-ranked San Antonio area, median debt for millennials (excluding a mortgage) was $27,122, according to the study. Auto loans made up 43.2 percent, student loans were at 30.2 percent (lower than DFW's rate), credit cards at 14.8 percent, personal loans at 9.4 percent, and “other” at 2.4 percent.

“The millennial generation makes up the younger portion of adults, and as they build their careers, families, and communities, they’re doing it encumbered by personal debt,” Kali McFadden, senior research analyst at LendingTree, says in a release.

Millennials in Texas’ other major metros aren’t much better off than their counterparts in DFW when it comes to debt like student and auto loans, the study shows.

The Austin metro area ranked No. 3 for the highest amount of non-mortgage debt, at $26,164, according to LendingTree. At No. 4 was Houston ($25,978).

Millennials in Austin had higher debt for student loans (35.4 percent) and credit cards (18.1 percent) compared with San Antonio. Like San Antonio, Houston millennials had a big chunk of debt earmarked for auto loans (42.5 percent), with student loan debt at just 29.9 percent.

Among the 50 largest metros, the median amount of millennial debt was $23,064.

Where do millennials carry the least debt? Perhaps surprisingly, in New York, Los Angeles, Sacramento, and San Jose, California, according to the survey.

lists rankings

Death Penalty

Tarrant County man gets death for murder of convenience store owner

Tarrant County Sheriff's Office

Christopher Turner

A man received the death penalty for his 2020 cold-blooded execution of a convenience store owner.

According to a release from the office of Tarrant County Criminal District Attorney Phil Sorrells, a Tarrant County jury sentenced Christopher Karon Turner, 48, to death on November 20 for executing convenience store owner Anwar Ali during a robbery. Tarrant County Assistant District Attorneys Charles Boulware and Allenna Bangs represented the state.

On March 27, 2020, at around 6:15 am, Turner, a convicted felon, wore a surgical mask and a glove and entered the Super Big Country Mart in an unincorporated area of Tarrant County south of Fort Worth. There, he held a gun to the back of Anwar Ali, the 62-year-old store owner, and walked him through the store.

Ali did everything Turner demanded, including opening the cash register to give him money. And yet Turner forced Ali into the bathroom and onto his knees, and shot him in the neck. Ali was discovered, dead in the bathroom, about an hour later.

Turner fled the store in Ali's Toyota minivan with the money from the register and Ali's wallet. In the van, he found more than $50,000 cash in a black bag. Over the next few days, Turner went on a shopping spree, buying cars, jewelry, drugs, clothes, and more. He and others used cash and a credit card that belonged to Ali.

Turner fled to Colorado where U.S. Marshals arrested him. On his body they found a firearm which was determined to be the murder weapon.

"This was a premeditated, cold-blooded murder," Boulware told the jury. "From the moment he was charged with this crime, he has tried to escape responsibility."

Bangs noted that before this trial began, Turner obtained the names of jurors and their telephone numbers, and gave them to an inmate charged with murder. At the trial on November 20, as Bangs addressed the jury, Turner tried to hold up a sign to the jury but was handcuffed by Sheriff's deputies who removed him from the courtroom, while he yelled out "she lied."

Ali came to the United States from Pakistan decades ago to pursue the American dream. Ali's son, Hussein, spoke in the courtroom after the death penalty was announced. "Thank you for giving us justice," Ali said. "I hope there are no more devils like this person."