Ready to trade in home ownership for a luxury apartment with perks? You’re not alone
Lisa Pepper doesn’t know if she will ever own a home again.
It’s not that she can’t buy a house.
She just doesn’t know if she wants to go through that again.
“Right now, I prefer renting,” said the 44-year-old Fort Worth woman, who rents at The Club at Stonegate. “I don’t have to deal with the hassle of home ownership.
“I don’t have to worry about taxes due, if the sink is clogged or if the front porch light bulb burns out. I call somebody and they fix it.”
Pepper is among the thousands of people in Fort Worth now renting a home, forgoing the previously traditional path of seeking home ownership.
So many people are renting locally and across the country that there 38.7 million renters are the most since 1997, according to RealPage Inc. data.
As a result, luxury apartments are popping up, offering living spaces with perks that include dog parks, pools, fitness centers and more. More than 51,000 high-end units were built in and around Tarrant County since 2010 and another 17,858 are in the works, RealPage, Inc. data shows.
Those apartments — with the amenities and highly desirable locations — don’t come cheap.
Rent for some studios and small one bedrooms starts around $1,300.
Want more space and bedrooms? Be prepared to shell out $3,000 or more a month.
The median household income in Tarrant County was $57,652 in 2017, according to the U.S. Census.
No matter the cost, these apartments are becoming more attractive to millennials, retirees and people of all ages in between.
“Buying a house is no longer the great American dream,” said John Baen, a real estate professor at the University of North Texas. “My young grads are spending up to 50% of their take-home pay to live and play in such high-end places.
“And under 40s are rock solid paying their ... what I consider crazy rents.”
Whether renters are in their 20s or 40s or even 60s or 70s, one theme resonates.
“They live for now,” Baen said, and don’t want to “own a 30-year commitment on a single house.”
The right fit?
There are around 224,000 apartments in Tarrant County and the average rent, excluding student and senior rentals that can include subsidies, is $1,106 per unit, according to ALN Apartment Data Inc.
But many who want luxurious living and homes with high technology pay more than that average.
High-income renter households represent the fastest-growing part of the country’s housing market, according to a recent report by Apartment List.
Some rent these units because they don’t know how long they’ll stay in the Metroplex and don’t want to be held back by having to deal with selling a house. Maybe some are overburdened with student debt and can’t save for a down payment.
But some young professionals pick the complex where they live because others their age live there.
“You’ve got to live, work and play to meet a mate today,” Baen said.
That is a common mindset of many millennials, said Baen’s nephew, Jason, who rents a one-bedroom apartment at Firestone West 7th in downtown Fort Worth.
Jason Baen, a 35-year-old account manager, said he has owned a home before — and he plans to own another in the future.
But for now, as he has moved around Texas for his job, it makes more sense to rent.
“I need to be nimble, especially as a lot of companies are no longer offering relocation services,” he said.
Flexibility is key for many renters, said Jason Busboom, who co-founded the Busboom Group and owns and operates more than 2,600 apartment homes in the Metroplex.
“They love the ability to change jobs and locations without the large cost and time associated with selling a home,” he said. “If they are settled down in a location for an extended period, then they typically love having a full time maintenance staff on hand to fix their issues.
“Home ownership is expensive, time consuming ... and annoying and they know this,” Busboom said. “They can use their phone to let someone else know that an issue that may cost $50 or $500 has occurred and they are on their way to work and would really like to have that fixed quickly and they don’t need to know how much it costs, just that it is fixed.”
‘Minimal responsibility’
Jason Baen said he got a great deal when he rented his downtown apartment for $1,200 a month.
And he loves the amenities that come with the gated community, from the two-story gym to the 24-hour basketball court.
He knows there are less expensive rentals outside of downtown, in areas not quite as much in demand.
But he likes being downtown, where there’s a sense of community, and someone is likely to notice if his home is burglarized. Not only that, but he can save money on a gym membership because of the exercise equipment at the apartment complex.
Many millennials like a “set price tag with minimal responsibility” when they are looking for a home, Jason Baen said.
But his uncle, John Baen of UNT, said he fears millennials shying away from home ownership are making the wrong decision.
“If they don’t become home owners, they will be renters forever,” he said. “We will have a whole generation of apartment renters.”
What you get
Luxury apartments don’t even compare to the standard fare rented out decades ago.
Open concept is common. Kitchens featuring granite counters and islands are standard. And pools with outside grilling areas are pretty much a given.
Many complexes are amping up the amenities in other ways. “Additional amenities are a big selling point,” Jason Baen said.
Here’s a sampling of some luxury apartments in Tarrant County and what they offer:
Arlington Commons: A two bedroom, two bathroom apartment with 1,324 square feet can cost $2,335. Amenities include WiFi, a business center, a wellness center with techno gym, a dog park with washing station, door-to-door trash pick up and a designer clubhouse. A second phase of construction for this complex is under way and could be finished in 2021. In this addition, 75% of the units will have one bedroom with the rest made up of two- and three-bedroom units, said Brian Webster, president of KWA Construction, the contractor working on this expansion.
Alexan Summit in Fort Worth: A two bedroom, two bathroom apartment with 1,350 square feet costs $1,675; a studio with one bathroom in 585 square feet can cost $1,165. Amenities include one year of Amazon Prime for free, Amazon Echo in every unit, a resort-style pool with tanning ledge, bike storage, co-work space, 24/7 package pickup, electric car charging stations and a pet grooming station.
The View of Fort Worth: A three bedroom, three bathroom unit with 1,606 square feet can cost $2,965; a studio with one bathroom and 594 square feet can cost $1,355. Amenities include an infinity edge pool, an in-water sundeck, private cabanas that overlook downtown and the Trinity River, a WiFi café, a dog park and grooming station and a fitness center.
Mansfield on the Green: A one bedroom, one bathroom with 728 square feet can cost $1,307; a three bedroom, two bathroom with 1,409 square feet can cost $1,776. Amenities at this complex, in the midst of the Mansfield National Golf Course, include a WiFi coffee cafe, fitness centers, pools with cabanas, a billiards room and a bark park.
Broadstone on Fifth in Fort Worth: A two bedroom, 2.5 bathroom unit with 1,744 square feet can cost $4,110; a two bedroom, 2.5 bathroom unit with 1,617 square feet can cost $3,785. Amenities include a rooftop pool and lounge, a spin studio and yoga room, co-working spaces, a prep kitchen and movie lounge room.
Enclave at Hometown in North Richland Hills: A one bedroom, one bathroom unit with 683 square feet can cost $1,135; a four bedroom, three bathroom unit with 1,763 square feet can cost $2,269. Amenities include a latte lounge, fitness studio, valet trash pickup and available storage rental.
“These are the types of properties developers can make money on right now, so there’s an incentive to build the expensive units,” said Jordan Brooks, an analytics specialist with ALN Apartment Data, Inc.
And they are in demand for people of all ages.
“In markets like DFW, with above-average household incomes, a healthy young professional population and a lack of entry level single-family housing, demand is strong for trendy and more expensive units,” Brooks said.
‘It’s just easy’
Just look around downtown Fort Worth, Arlington and many other Tarrant County cities.
There’s constant construction as new complexes are being built.
Fort Worth recently landed ninth on a list of cities across with the largest rent increases in the country, according to Apartmentguide.com.
The reason? The large number of college graduates moving to the area looking for jobs and its proximity to Dallas, according to the report that cited a Dallas Morning News story.
“Fort Worth has lots of potential renters, but not necessarily lots of apartments, which is why the city’s average rent increased 10.8 percent,” the report shows.
Fort Worth was the only Texas city to make the top 10 list of increasingly expensive places to rent, but El Paso ranked No. 13 and Plano was 14th.
For Pepper, renting in Fort Worth makes sense right now.
While there is some transition, as people move in and out of complexes, there also is a community there.
“All the kids come out and play at night and parents come out and sit, hang out and talk,” she said. “Everybody pretty much knows everybody.”
But it’s more than that.
“It’s just easy,” she said. “It’s easier than home ownership.”
