Fort Worth’s $330K squeeze: How millennials can still buy a home here

If you’re a millennial with a steady Fort Worth paycheck and a growing suspicion that homeownership is quietly slipping out of reach, you’re not imagining it — and you’re not alone.

At a conference last week hosted by the Greater Fort Worth Association of Realtors, attorney and fair housing advocate Carol Johnson told the Star-Telegram that the affordability crunch is hitting the “missing middle” hardest — people with jobs who don’t earn enough to swing a mortgage on a median-priced Fort Worth home, now hovering around $330,000.

Key takeaways

• The median Fort Worth home costs about $330,000. The median household income, per the U.S. Census Bureau, is $79,507.
• A household earning the median would have to commit roughly 40% or more of monthly gross income to a mortgage — well above the recommended 25-30%.
• Fort Worth voters this month approved a $10 million affordable housing bond, the city’s first ever, to fund land purchases, single-family construction, grants and subsidized loans.
• Fort Worth’s Homebuyer Assistance Program offers eligible first-time buyers up to $25,000 for down payment and closing costs.
• Income caps for that program: individuals making less than around $60,000 qualify; families of four qualify under $85,350.

The math behind the ‘missing middle’

Johnson’s argument is the one a lot of younger Fort Worth workers have been making at kitchen tables for years: you’re not poor, but you’re definitely not in shape to write checks on a $300,000 house — and you usually earn just enough to be locked out of assistance programs designed for lower incomes.

“We want our millennials to be able to become homeowners and to build assets, to build wealth and to really understand that they can make a difference in this world — that they can be happy, and they can be fulfilled, and they can love their life. But if we don’t allow them those opportunities, how are they ever going to achieve?” Johnson said.

She’s pushing for expanded grants and subsidies aimed specifically at that earnings bracket.

Habitat for Humanity isn’t just for the lowest incomes

If you’ve written off Habitat for Humanity as something that doesn’t apply to you, look again. Greg Hart, director of loan origination at Trinity Habitat for Humanity — the branch serving Fort Worth — told Realtors association members his office was on pace to close more than 60 loans this year for working families.

More than half of those borrowers are single mothers, Hart said, and many work in fields like teaching. Thanks to subsidies, he said he had helped one client get into a home with a $900-a-month mortgage. For renters watching their monthly payments climb past that figure, the math is hard to ignore.

The first-ever housing bond — and what it could unlock

The $10 million bond Fort Worth voters just approved is small relative to the need, but it’s a turning point. Some of the money will go toward buying land and building affordable single-family homes. Part of the rest will fund grants and subsidized loans for qualified buyers.

Jake Wegmann, an associate professor at the University of Texas at Austin School of Architecture and an expert on affordable housing, previously told the Star-Telegram that relatively modest investment could pave the way for bigger investments once people see the difference the money can make. Wegmann said similar, much larger, affordable housing investments in Austin have stabilized housing prices after years of steep increases.

For context: Fort Worth’s 2023 Neighborhood Conservation Plan and Affordable Housing Strategy identified an estimated 100,000 households in the city that struggled to pay their monthly mortgage or rent. The plan said $100 million would be needed by 2027 for affordable housing. The bond covers a tenth of that — but it’s a start.

If you teach, patrol or fight fires here, there’s a program with your name on it

Realtors association President Shawn Buck previously told the Star-Telegram it’s crucial that Fort Worth find a way to give essential workers — teachers, police officers, firefighters and others — a better path to owning a home in the city they serve.

The Texas State Affordable Housing Corporation’s Homes for Texas Heroes program offers down payment help for teachers, police officers, corrections officers, firefighters and emergency medical technicians. Combined with the city’s Homebuyer Assistance Program, which can stack up to $25,000 toward down payment and closing costs for eligible first-time buyers with moderate incomes, the gap between renting and owning shrinks.

The bottom line for buyers in your bracket

Without help, saving for a down payment on a $330,000 house can take years for an average Fort Worth earner. The system isn’t built for the missing middle yet — Johnson and others are still pushing for that — but if you’re willing to dig into Habitat’s loan program, the city’s assistance fund, the new bond-funded grants or the Texas Heroes program, the door isn’t fully closed.

It’s just narrower than it used to be.