This is how big an apartment renters get for $1,500 in Fort Worth

NO SPACE TO WASTE

Photo by Jarek Ceborski on Unsplash

We all know what renters dream about when they’re not thinking about the logistics of owning a home: low rent prices with the perfect amount of space. In cities across Dallas-Fort Worth, that’s getting harder and harder to come by.

For renters who have a budget of $1,500 a month, the average apartment size they can get in Fort Worth spans about 909 square feet. The good news: That's almost 100 square feet more than they get in Dallas (805).

That’s according to a new study by apartment rental marketplace RentCafe.

In Arlington, renters get even more bang for their buck, at 928 square feet for the same budget.

Residents of the Dallas suburb of Mesquite, by far, get the most space in DFW, at 999 square feet for $1,500. Those in neighboring Garland come close, with 937 square feet.

The DFW cities that offer the smallest space for the price are Plano and Frisco. Plano renters have to make do with an average apartment size of 766 square feet, while Frisco renters get even less space, at 740 square feet. That’s more than 200 square feet less than an apartment in Mesquite.

RentCafe’s study looked at data from their sister site, Yardi Matrix, to determine the average size and price per square foot for a $1,500 monthly budget in 200 of the largest American cities.

Here’s how much space you can rent for $1,500 in other Dallas-Fort Worth-area cities:

Grand Prairie – 873 square feet
Denton – 868 square feet
Irving – 848 square feet
McKinney – 809 square feet

Elsewhere in Texas, apartments in the Rio Grande Valley have the best price per square foot in the state. McAllen residents get the most space out of any other Texas city with an average apartment size of 1,471 square feet. Renters in Brownsville, which is 60 miles east on the border, can get a similarly sized apartment that’s 1,307 square feet for the same $1,500 a month budget.

Much like Mesquite, Houston residents can find apartments that are just under 1,000 square feet for the same budget. But that doesn’t go nearly as far in Austin, where renters can find apartments that are an average of 714 square feet.

The full report can be found on rentcafe.com.

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Dallas-Fort Worth stalled by some of the worst commutes in U.S., new report says

Road warriors

When it comes to braking in traffic, Dallas-Fort Worth can't catch a break. Workers here have some of the worst daily commutes in the nation, a new SmartAsset report says.

The road warriors in Garland have it particularly tough (as anyone who's driven I-635 through northeast Dallas and into the suburbs lately can attest). Garland has the third worst commute in the country, the report says. It's joined by Dallas, Arlington, Fort Worth, Irving, and Plano in the top 100 "worst."

The financial services website compared data from the 100 largest U.S. cities and ranked the worst commutes by six factors: percentage of workers who commute; average travel time to work; transportation as a percentage of income; percentage of workers with a commute longer than 60 minutes; and five-year change in both travel time and percentage of workers with long commutes.

Garland ranked No. 3 worst, only out-trafficked by two California cities - Stockton and Bakersfield - which came in first and second, respectively.

Of the Dallas suburb, SmartAsset writes, "The majority of workers in Garland, Texas, are commuters (86.1%). And they average the seventh-highest commute time (roughly 30 minutes vs. the national average of 25.6 minutes). About 9.1% of commuters, however, experience drives over one hour (12th-highest). Overall, the average commute time has increased by 2.37% between 2016 and 2021."

Texas' two biggest cities, Houston and Dallas, (somehow!) tied for No. 23. The average commute time in Dallas is 25.7 minutes; in Houston, it's 26.1 minutes. But in Dallas, more workers (6.5%) have a "severe" commute of 60 minutes or more; in Houston, it's 5.8%. Houstonians spend a tiny bit more of their income on transportation costs than Dallas drivers do (9.9% vs. 9%).

Notably, Dallas and Houston ranked worse than notoriously traffic-jammed Los Angeles, which came in at No. 25.

Also on the top-100 list are the North Texas cities of Arlington (No. 33), Fort Worth (No. 47), Irving (No. 50), and Plano (No. 52).

Average commute times are nearly identical in Arlington and Fort Worth - 26.1 minutes and 25.9 minutes, respectively. In Arlington, 5.4% of workers have a "severe" commute; in Fort Worth, 6.3% of workers do. In both cities, residents spend 9% of income on transportation costs.

In case you're now thinking, "I should really try out public transportation, here are some handy links.

Elsewhere around the state, city rankings were:

San Antonio, No. 55
Lubbock, No. 61
Austin, No. 64
Corpus Christi, No. 78
Laredo, No. 81

Interestingly, SmartAsset notes, despite the rise in remote work the past few years, the average commute time went down by only one minute in five years. The national average decreased from 26.6 minutes in 2016 to 25.6 minutes in 2021, they say, while the percentage of remote workers has tripled in about half the time.

"Workers in 2023 will average almost 222 hours (or a little over nine days) driving to and from work," the report says. "And these hours spent in transit cost commuters more than just their time. The price of fuel, public transit passes and other commuter-related costs can add up quickly."

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Property Showcase

'Yellowstone' stars to greet fans at Fort Worth Stock Show & Rodeo

Yellowstone news

Yellowstone fans, get your comfy shoes ready - there'll be a long line for this one. Cole Hauser a.k.a. "Rip Wheeler" on Yellowstone, and Taylor Sheridan, the show's co-creator, executive producer, and director of the series, will meet fans and sign autographs at the Fort Worth Stock Show & Rodeo.

The event will take place from 4:30-6:30 pm only on Friday, February 3. Location is the 6666 Ranch booth near the south end of Aisle 700 in the Amon G. Carter, Jr. Exhibits Hall.

According to a February 2 announcement from FWSSR, "fans will have the opportunity to snag an autograph as well as purchase some distinctive Yellowstone and 6666 Ranch merchandise while also enjoying all the features the Stock Show offers."

The event is free to attend (with paid Stock Show admission) and open to the public.

It's the second year in a row for Hauser to appear at FWSSR; in 2022, he and fellow cast mates drew huge crowds.

Sheridan, a Paschal High School graduate, is no stranger to Fort Worth; he lives in a ranch near Weatherford and filmed 1883, the prequel to Yellowstone, in and around Fort Worth. Currently, another spinoff, 1883: The Bass Reeves Story, is filming in North Texas.

The Fort Worth Stock Show & Rodeo is winding up its 2023 run on Saturday, February 4.

Concerts in the Garden drones light up this week's 5 hottest Fort Worth headlines

This week's hot headlines

Editor's note: A lot happened this week, so here's your chance to get caught up. Read on for the week's most popular headlines. Looking for the best things to do this weekend? Find that list here.

1. Fort Worth Symphony launches summer concerts with sparkly extra: drones. The Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra returned with its annual summer concert series, Concerts in The Garden, featuring 11 concerts taking place at the Fort Worth Botanic Garden, starting May 26 and running through June 11. And the coolest part of the 2023 series might be the light show: For the first time, they're replacing old-school fireworks with the use of cutting-edge drones.

2. Openings and closings head up this Fort Worth restaurant news roundup. This roundup of dining news around Fort Worth has an opening, a closing, a gofundme campaign, and loads of new menus for summer. Here's what's happening in Fort Worth restaurant news.

3. Decadent desserts in jars from celebrity Top Chef roll in to Fort Worth. Desserts in jars from a celebrity chef are coming to Fort Worth: Jars by Fabio Viviani, a fast-casual dessert brand serving popular desserts in jars, is opening a location in the Trinity Commons/Tom Thumb center, at 3000 S. Hulen St. #150. It'll open in late 2023.

4. 3 Dallas-Fort Worth entrepreneurs rank among Forbes' richest self-made women for 2023. Twelve of the country's 100 most successful female entrepreneurs live in Texas this year, and three of them call Dallas-Fort Worth home. So says Forbes in its 2023 list of America's Richest Self-Made Women, released June 1.

5. 5 tips for stunning beach sand sculptures from 2023 Texas SandFest winners. “Playing” in the sand on the beach isn’t just an activity for children, as proven by the 22 professional sand sculptors from around the world who recently competed in the 26th annual Texas SandFest. Here are five of the pros' top tips for producing a beachfront masterpiece.

Cafe with made-to-order mini-doughnuts to open near TCU in south Fort Worth

Doughnut News

Little doughnuts are rolling into south Fort Worth via a new doughnut cafe. Called Batter & Beans, it'll serve doughnuts, coffee, and more, and it's opening at 3548 South Hills Ave., south of TCU in Westcliff Center.

They'll be right around the corner from Cafe Bella [which it should be noted recently won Best Neighborhood Restauant in CultureMap's 2023 Tastemaker Awards].

Batter & Beans will be a family-owned collaboration between Matthew Whip, a partner at Ernst & Young, and his brother-in-law, who worked for a restaurant group in Michigan and brings the food knowhow.

They'll be doing miniature doughnuts, similar to the Pittsburgh-based Peace, Love, and Little Donuts chain (which has one location in Texas, in Southlake).

They're aiming to be open by early fall.

"We'll be doing fresh, made-to-order mini cake doughnuts plus premium coffee we're sourcing out of Chicago, from Metropolis, a small-batch artisan roaster," Whip says. "We're originally from the Chicago area, and that's always been my favorite roaster, and they also roast coffee for Yolk, which has a location in Sundance Square."

The cafe will also offer fresh lemonade, iced tea, and ice cream, for neighbors who want to stop in for a treat at night.

Whip and his family first relocated from the Chicago area to North Texas in 2018, then moved down the street from the shop last year. It's a small storefront, about 920 square feet, and they're currently in the final stages of design and permitting.

"There's lots of kids in this neighborhood, and I think a place with mini doughnuts would do well," Whip says.

It was only after they signed on to do the shop that they learned from a neighbor that the space they're taking had good doughnut karma, with a longtime history as a doughnut shop, most recently a place called Donut Palace. Sadly, it closed during the pandemic. Now the doughnuts will return.

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