Renting and Buying a Home in Dallas

The Dallas real estate market was hit hard by over-speculation and the savings
and loan scandals of the 1980s real estate boom. After almost two decades,
the low property values and relatively little building combined with the strong
Dallas economy to attract significant investment in the area, both by the growing
population and investors.

The diversity of the city is one of its main strengths. There are about 1.2
million residents in total. About thirty percent of them are Hispanic, a third
Caucasian and a little over a quarter of them are of African-American descent.

The property values of the city vary greatly from neighborhood to neighborhood.
There is both incredible wealth and poverty here. This disparity of wealth
is, sadly, one of the defining features of life in Dallas. While this is true
for most American cities, it is even more stark in Dallas.

About fifty-four percent of the population rents. The median gross rent – which
means the total rent that someone living in the city is most likely to pay – was
$685 dollars a month. In 2005, those that buy payed an average price of $120,900.
While it is easier to find a good home to rent or buy here than it is in most
cities, it is still usually a difficult task. Someone looking for a home should
use the most efficient methods possible

There are several ways to find a home to buy or rent here. Newspaper listings,
while constantly shrinking due to the growth in online listings, are still
popular in Dallas, even though they can't be efficiently searched. There
are a few online real estate companies that offer more complete services and
extensive listings. All of them allow users to search listings by size and
price, but few offer more possibilities and services bthan that.

One, website, however, has by far the most in-depth set of search options, for
both renting and buying. City Cribs – allows
users to search for a home by the details of the house that are important to
them. If a user, for instance, is looking for a place with a balcony, they can
search just among the homes that have one. Or, if they are only interested in
3-bedroom furnished apartments with laundry and parking, pets allowed and no
move-in fees, they can search among just the homes that offer those things, as
well. Even the results can be sorted in six different ways.

Nicholas Adams Judge is a freelance writer specializing in business, politics and economics. He holds a B.A. in political science and will begin his PhD studies in political economy and public opinion next fall. He has studied economics and political science at a number of different institutions, both here and in the U.K., including Amherst College, Warwick University, Oxford University and the University of Massachusetts-Amherst.
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