With Fort Worth constantly growing and undertaking multiple high-profile developments this year, we figured it was time to talk about the cost of planting some roots in Cowtown.
The median household income in Tarrant County is $76,210, according to the US Census Bureau. State-wise, Texas is No. 24 in the country for median income at ~$66,963 per household.
The overall cost of living in FTW is just over the national average and higher than the rest of the state. Here’s how the cost of living pans out in other areas of life:
- Healthcare | Lower than other parts of Texas, lower than the national average
- Groceries + housing | Higher than other parts of Texas, lower than the national average
- Transportation | Higher than other parts of Texas, higher than the national average
- Misc. | Higher than other parts of Texas, higher than the national average
Breaking down the numbers
Hypothetically speaking, if you live in a household that brings in $50,000 annually — according to experts — you shouldn’t spend more than 30% of your monthly gross income on rent and utilities. Don’t worry, we did the math for you — your max monthly budget would be $1,250. The average monthly rent for an apartment in FTW is $1,426 — putting you over budget.
Meanwhile, if you’re wondering how much you can currently afford to spend on buying a home in Fort Worth, try using SmartAsset’s cost calculator. Factors like your marital status, annual pre-tax income, down payment, and monthly debt, will help determine that figure. According to BestPlaces, the median home cost in Cowtown is $306,700.
While we’re crunching numbers, let’s also take a look at the chart below to see how Fort Worth’s cost of living compares to that of Austin.
Interested in seeing Fort Worth’s prices compared to cities in other states? We played around on NerdWallet’s cost of living calculator, where you can put in any city along with your current pre-tax household income to find out what other cities you could afford to live in.
We took a look at the cost of living in Fort Worth compared to Austin. Here’s what we found:
- The cost of living is 27.2% higher in the state capital.
- To maintain our standard of living, we would need to bring in $63,600 to our Austin household.
- The average cost of housing in Austin is a staggering 118.5% higher than Fort Worth.
Local housing + developments
Cowtown also has entities such as Fort Worth Housing Solutions + other government-funded programs to help develop more affordable units. The city is also recently adopted a new affordable housing strategy.
There are also a number of local development firms working on apartments seemingly all the time — from Deco 969 on Commerce Street to the affordable and supportive housing developments from the Fort Worth Housing Finance Corporation.
