One Hot 'Hood

This Fort Worth neighborhood has it all, real estate experts say

500 Throckmorton downtown Fort Worth condo for sale

Downtown Fort Worth is a neighborhood to watch.

Photo courtesy of Redfin

Prospective homebuyers in search of a neighborhood that "has it all" should look no further than Fort Worth's 76102. That's according to Redfin's 2018 list of the 25 neighborhoods in the U.S. that have everything a buyer wants: affordable homes, lots of inventory, good schools, an easy commute, and low crime.

To determine the rankings, the real estate website's analysts looked at ZIP codes with a median home sale price below $291,700 (the national median) and selected those with homes on the market for at least 46 days. Redfin required a GreatSchools rating of 5 or higher and a transit score of 50 or more, and the ranking "favored places with lower reported violent crime."

Fort Worth's 76102 ZIP code ranks No. 23 on the list. The neighborhood is bordered by the Trinity River and encompasses downtown, as well as Sunset Terrace to the west and Rock Island to the north.

The area has a median sales price of $259,950. As of December 2017, there were 27 homes for sale, and homes spend a median 59 days on the market. It boasts a school ranking of 5, transit score of 50, and crime rate of 80 (one of the highest on the list).

The downtown ZIP isn't the only Texas neighborhood that "has it all," according to the study. Also on the list are Houston's Independence Heights (No. 13), San Antonio's Lafayette Place (No. 19), and Dallas' Cadillac Heights (No. 21) — all that's missing is a hip Austin 'hood.

While Texas fares well, Illinois shines with 14 neighborhoods on the list — 11 in the Chicago area alone.

home-for-sale reports

30 years or less

Paying down a mortgage in Fort Worth is easier than most U.S. metros

Photo by Dillon Kydd on Unsplash

Median interest rates for home loans in Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington stood at 6.75 percent in 2023, the report found.

Whether a homeowner's mortgage is for 15 or 30 years, paying off such a large debt can be an arduous process. But luckily for homeowners living in the Fort Worth area, paying off a mortgage is much easier than most other metropolitan areas in the country, according to a new report by SmartAsset.

Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington earned No. 13 in SmartAsset's new study analyzing the top 40 large U.S. metros where it's easiest to pay off a mortgage. Rankings were determined based on the principal and interest payments for conventional 30-year fixed rate mortgages issued in 2023, relative to the median income of new homeowners.

Leading the nation as the No. 1 easiest metro to pay off a mortgage is Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

According to the study's findings, the median property value of a home in the Metroplex is $475,000, while principal and interest payments amount to $2,464 per month. Those monthly mortgage payments represent only 20 percent of a DFW homeowner's gross pay. (SmartAsset also determined that the median income of new homeowner in the area comes out to $148,000 a year.)

The report also reflects on the different life changes that can happen while paying off a house, such as starting a new job, starting a family, or even large economic events.

"After you qualify and buy the home, you could spend 30 years paying off your mortgage loan...So it’s important to have a strong emergency fund to cover unexpected expenses," the report's author wrote. "You may also decide to pay off your mortgage early, even when having the opportunity to invest those extra funds elsewhere."

Elsewhere in Texas, Houston-The Woodlands-Sugar Land ranked as the No. 2 easiest metro for paying off a mortgage, followed by San Antonio-New Braunfels as No. 5. Austin-Round Rock-Georgetown rounded out the top 10 with the lowest interest rates for new homeowners in 2023, at just 6.5 percent, the report found.

The top 10 U.S. metros where mortgages are easiest to pay off are:

No. 1 – Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
No. 2 – Houston-The Woodlands-Sugar Land, Texas
No. 3 – Detroit-Warren-Dearborn, Michigan
No. 4 – Cleveland-Elyria, Ohio
No. 5 – San Antonio-New Braunfels, Texas
No. 6 – St. Louis, Missouri-Illiniois
No. 7 – Milwaukee-Waukesha, Wisconsin
No. 8 – Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington, Pennsylvania-New Jersey-Delaware-Maryland
No. 9 – Cincinnati, Ohio-Kentucky-Indiana
No. 10 – Austin-Round Rock-Georgetown, Texas

The report used data from the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act for 2023, where median loan sizes and median interest rates were used to determine the monthly principal and interest calculator with SmartAsset’s mortgage calculator. This monthly mortgage payment (which excluded PMI, property taxes, and home insurance) was then compared with the median incomes of new homeowners.

The full report and its methodology can be found on smartasset.com.

real estate reports smartasset rankings dallas fort worth arlington