According to an article in the Dallas Morning News, Dallas-Fort Worth is one of only two metropolitan areas where average apartment rents have not declined in the first quarter of 2009.

The article said:

Average rents in the D-FW area and Denver were unchanged from a year ago in the study of 31 U.S. apartment markets. “Rents and occupancy continue to go down, but there was not big drop this quarter as some people predicted,” the analysts said. “However, the cumulative effect of the past three quarter decline is beginning to make itself felt.”

As job losses and foreclosures rapidly increase it has created a glut of housing on the market. Many homeowners who have faced job losses and even investors are now attempting to rent out homes in an effort to avoid foreclosure , increasing the availability of rentals on the market.

There are two sides to this coin:

  1. Some homeowners get burned because they are often simply breaking even and some may even face foreclosure anyway because they can’t rent out their property for enough money to cover the
    mortgage and taxes;
  2. Those facing foreclosure and reduced wages can now find “reasonably” priced rentals (even in some parts of Dallas-Fort Worth) to begin rebuilding their lives. But for the most part Dallas-Fort Worth rental rates have remained consistent, which can’t be said for most of the country.