Over a quarter of single-family homes in Fort Worth are owned by commercial interests, according to a new city report.
The report was conducted by Fort Worth Lab, the city's data analyzing arm, using April data from the Tarrant Appraisal District.
It found that out of more than 247,000 single-family homes listed on TAD’s April property records, about 183,000 were found to be resident-owned and 64,372 were listed as commercially-owned properties.
The report said those figures added up to 74% owner occupancy of single-family homes, with the remaining 26% held by commercial interests.
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The group defined owner-occupied properties as any property with a Homestead Exemption and properties where the address matches the owner's address, and the owner's name doesn't indicate commercial ownership.
The Lab defined commercial properties as:
- Properties with owner names indicating commercial ownership, including acronyms and phrases
such as LLC, LTD, INC, Trust, etc. - Properties without a Homestead Exemption for which the property address does not match the
owner address, especially for cases in which the property owner holds several properties
“We’re defining commercial properties as properties with owner names that indicate commercial ownership, and then properties that don’t have a homestead exemption, so those are the assumptions we’re making when we try to say is a property occupied by its owner or not," said Christianne Simmons, FWLab Chief Transformation Officer, during Fort Worth City Council's work session.
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City council member Chris Nettles said he and others requested the report over concerns.
“[City council member Jared] Williams and I and others were concerned with affordability homes that are available in the city of Fort Worth, with many residents moving from Dallas and all coming to Fort Worth, and a lot of these homes are not available because they’re owned by commercial and they’re rent homes," he said.
He and others requested a more detailed report with a better breakdown of who owns the homes, how many are rentals, and how many go back on the market for neighbors to be able to buy.
"We may need a better presentation of how many homes in our neighborhood that are owned by commercial that are renting homes instead of home ownership," Nettles said.
“I know a lot of people buy homes as LLCs and then flip them, you know, so they’re selling them and putting them back on the market. So, I think that’s also worth noting," said city council member Michael Crain.
Mayor Mattie Parker noted that some of the company owners could be Fort Worth residents.
“Despite the fact that it’s tagged as commercial, it may be an LLC that’s owned by one individual that lives here and it’s a rental property next door to their home. That’s quite different, and especially if it’s rented and available to residents that live here in the city of Fort Worth," she said.
She mentioned that there are large hedge funds that buy chunks of neighborhoods across the country.
“We do have some of that in Fort Worth. However, I don’t think it’s systemic. And it’s something we should be aware of," she said.
NBC5 spoke with a realtor who says in recent years, families have not been competing with investors in the Fort Worth housing market.
"We see a lot of people owning properties not in their name, maybe appearing like they could be an investor, when in reality it’s just a homeowner doing what they can to protect their asset," said Chandler Crouch.
Data from North Texas Real Estate Information Systems showed the inventory of homes available for sale in Fort Worth has more than doubled in the past two years, up to around 3,000 homes currently.
"Just because a bunch of houses are owned by companies or corporations doesn’t mean that they’re gobbling up all the available inventory that’s actively on the market," Crouch said.
Families trying to move to the area have also reported finding a significant number of homes available. Mandy and James Mendoza plan to move to DFW from California.
In April they flew out for a weekend to look at homes, and after two days of open houses in the Fort Worth area, they found a home that worked for them.
"It actually went very smooth for us," said Mandy Mendoza. "And there really was, for us, plenty of inventory."
The Fort Worth Lab is expected to give an updated presentation to city council members next Tuesday.
