Dallas Multifamily Market Q3 2026 Investment Intelligence Report

Quick Stats: Dallas-Fort Worth Q3 2026

Q3 at a Glance

Morgan Stanley picked Dallas for a $1.3 billion U.S. hub in September, and the rest of Q3 spread new employment over the whole Metroplex. AT&T’s $1.35 billion Plano headquarters cleared its final site plan. MTU Maintenance and Foxlink opened plants at AllianceTexas in north Fort Worth, LITEON chose McKinney for a North American headquarters and factory, and Covenant opened a defense manufacturing plant in Grand Prairie. Behind those announcements, North Texas led the country in population growth, with more than 100,000 new residents over the year. In Q3 2026, the Dallas multifamily market drew demand from a regional job base that kept widening, even as the city of Dallas itself lost residents.

The Common Thread

The biggest commitments of Q3 landed outside downtown Dallas. Plano, McKinney, north Fort Worth and Grand Prairie took the headquarters and factories, and Morgan Stanley’s hub was the major exception inside city limits. Population followed the same pattern. Dallas grew 2% from 2020 to 2025 while the region grew 10%, and the city lost 1,800 residents last year, falling to 1.3 million (The Texas Tribune). Six cities in the region added more residents than Dallas over that period, including Fort Worth, McKinney, Frisco, and Denton (The Texas Tribune).

At the metro level, demand is strong. As of March 2026, North Texas ranked first in the nation for absolute population growth, adding more than 100,000 residents and roughly 47,000 new households (Marcus & Millichap). Net in-migration of more than 70,000 people in 2025 drove about 70% of that growth, and median household income rose about $4,300 year over year, a third more than the U.S. gain (Marcus & Millichap). New households with rising incomes are the renter base for value-add apartments near suburban job centers.

The labor data cooled in Q3. Texas lost 1,480 jobs in July, and year-to-date growth slipped to 1.6%, below the state’s long-run average of 2% (Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas). The Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington unemployment rate was 4.7% in June, up from 4.0% a year earlier (Texas Workforce Commission). The Dallas Fed has since cut its 2026 forecast to 0.9% statewide job growth, or about 134,000 jobs, after Texas lost 18,900 jobs in September (Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas). Hiring has slowed, and the named projects from Q3 have yet to show up in the payroll counts.

The Markets We Track

Corporate and Financial Services

Morgan Stanley announced on September 28 that Dallas will be home to its new U.S. hub, with more than $1.3 billion in direct and indirect capital investment and more than 3,800 jobs (City of Dallas). The City Council approved an economic development grant of up to $18.5 million tied to actual jobs created, and the state extended a $43.8 million Texas Enterprise Fund grant (City of Dallas).

Plano’s Planning and Zoning Commission approved the final site plan for AT&T’s $1.35 billion headquarters on the former EDS campus on September 21 (Dallas Express). The 54-acre campus will consolidate AT&T administrative operations from Dallas, Plano and Irving, and the company’s agreement with Plano calls for up to 10,000 full-time job equivalents, with partial occupancy expected in the second half of 2028 (Dallas Express).

Irish engineering firm H&MV Engineering opened its North American headquarters at 3131 McKinney Ave. in Dallas and plans to add 1,000 U.S. jobs over five years (Dallas Innovates). The firm designs and builds high-voltage substations and expects more than $7 billion in high-voltage projects in DFW and along the I-35 corridor in the coming years (Dallas Innovates). Office leasing in the first half favored the same suburbs, with Geico taking more than 205,000 square feet in Richardson and Public Storage moving its headquarters from California to Frisco (D Magazine).

Advanced Manufacturing and Defense

AllianceTexas opened two major plants within six days in July. MTU Maintenance opened its first U.S. engine maintenance facility at Perot Field Fort Worth Alliance Airport, a nearly 463,000-square-foot operation expected to employ more than 1,200 people, and Foxlink opened a 147,780-square-foot circuit board plant expected to create about 900 jobs (D Magazine). Since 1989, the development has drawn more than 600 companies and created more than 73,000 direct jobs (D Magazine).

LITEON will establish a North American headquarters and advanced manufacturing facility in McKinney for AI power and infrastructure products. Phase 1 calls for $307 million and 500 jobs, and the full project is expected to reach $919 million and more than 600 jobs (Office of the Texas Governor).

Defense manufacturing added two Q3 items. Covenant opened a 105,000-square-foot missile production facility in Grand Prairie after a $250 million raise and plans full-scale production in early 2027 (Dallas Innovates). In August, the Fort Worth City Council approved up to $4.5 million in incentives for Mach Industries, which is weighing an Alliance site for a drone plant. The full incentive requires at least 1,000 workers at a minimum average salary of $67,470 (Fort Worth Report).

Aviation, Infrastructure and Power

A Texas Christian University study found American Airlines’ DFW hub supports about $70 billion in annual economic output and 350,000 jobs in North Texas (American Airlines). American employs more than 37,000 people in the region, and the airline and DFW have announced a nearly $4 billion expansion of Terminal F (American Airlines).

The Texas A&M University System opened its first building on the new downtown Fort Worth campus in August, a 228,000-square-foot law and education building, and broke ground on a research building due in 2029 (The Texas A&M University System). An economic impact study projects the completed campus will support more than 25,000 direct and indirect jobs and more than $3 billion in annual economic activity (The Texas A&M University System).

Power became a constraint in September. Governor Abbott directed the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality to pause all data center permits until ERCOT completes its audit of power and water use (FOX 4 Dallas-Fort Worth). Pending projects must disclose projected power and water use, cooling methods and neighborhood impacts, and the governor said the next legislative session will work to eliminate financial incentives for data centers (FOX 4 Dallas-Fort Worth).

Population and Housing

North Texas added more residents than any other U.S. metro over the year to March 2026, and net in-migration drove most of the gain (Marcus & Millichap). For-sale housing stayed soft. Texas home prices were 0.4% below year-ago levels in June, the 13th straight month of declines, and the statewide median sale price was $342,900 (Texas Real Estate Research Center).

DFW is closer to stabilizing than Austin or San Antonio. Fort Worth-Arlington posted a second straight month of year-over-year price gains, and DFW active listings and months’ supply were both below year-ago levels in June (Texas Real Estate Research Center).