Home prices triple in these one-time affordable Fort Worth neighborhoods

Home values have tripled in east and southeast Fort Worth neighborhoods like Polytechnic Heights and Stop Six, according to a report.

The report from Texas Real Estate Source used data from Zillow’s home value index to compare the change in the median house price for ZIP codes across Texas between February 2016 and May 2023. Fort Worth ZIP codes 76105 and 76104 had the seventh and eighth biggest increases in prices.

While some Fort Worth real estate agents expressed skepticism in the report given its reliance on data from Zillow rather than the state’s multiple listing service, none denied that homes in east and southeast Fort Worth have gotten more attention since the COVID-19 pandemic.

They attributed the rise to the area’s good location relative to downtown combined with low interest rates during the pandemic and high competition for housing.

The ZIP codes are south of Interstate 30 and north of Berry Street, from the hospital district to almost East Loop 820.

The neighborhoods of mostly one-story, single-family homes are among the city’s oldest: 22% were built before 1939 in 76104, and 31% were built between 1950 and 1959 in 76105.

They are also among the city’s poorest: The median household income is $27,000 lower than the city’s $67,927 and one in four families live below the poverty level.

There’s been a lot of purchases of empty lots and new construction raising the cost of housing, said Brandi Vaughn, a Realtor and executive with SuKaza Realty. She pointed to a client who purchased a plot of land near Texas Wesleyan University three years ago for roughly $10,000 before selling it in 2023 for nearly $50,000.

“Where you used to be able to get a house for $100,000 or maybe $200,000, now the average price is $300,000,” Vaughn said.

There have been 1,180 single family homes built in 76105 and 76104 since 2016, according to data from the city’s development services department.

East Fort Worth residents have also been flooded with postcards and text messages from investors interested in buying their homes, said Reba Henry, a longtime resident and advocate in the Polytechnic Heights Neighborhood.

“It’s like here’s $150,000, but now what?” she said, arguing rising home values are leaving residents with fewer options for affordable places to relocate.

A lot of buyers started to look at areas like east Fort Worth during the Covid-19 pandemic when interest rates fell below 3% and there was rabid competition for housing, said Shelby Kimball, a Fort Worth-based Realtor. At the same time, interest rate hikes starting in 2022 have take a lot of people out of the market, he said.

“There’s still not a lot of houses, but now there’s not a lot of buyers,” he said.

Southeast Fort Worth is one of the last parts of the city still affordable for the median income household, according to a city commissioned report from Philadelphia-based design and planning firm Interface Studio.

The median home price in 2021 was $296,000, but the median household could afford only $246,000, according to the report. Roughly 80% of all homes in 2021 were outside the price range for the median household the report said.

However, more than half of households in southeast Fort Worth make less than the city’s median income, which combined the high concentration of older residents puts these areas at high risk for displacement, according to the report.

The city is trying to combat displacement by making investments in more affordable housing, and helping low income residents make needed repairs to their homes, Conolly said.

Fort Worth also invested roughly $2.5 million in the Stop Six and Ash Crescent neighborhoods to improve infrastructure and spur develop in partnership with those neighborhoods, she said.

This has already had a positive influence in Stop Six, where local developers have partnered with the city to turn vacant lots and derelict properties into affordable homes, said Mayor Pro Tem Gyna Bivens, who has represented the area on the Fort Worth City Council since 2013.

Bivens acknowledged the fears of some residents that new development and rising prices will displace residents.

“What I say is, would you rather have your grandma live next to a crack house or next to a family?” she said.

Conolly stressed the city’s revitalization efforts are not meant to displace longtime residents. It’s about making sure areas long overlooked by the city get the same quality of streets, sewers, lights and sidewalks as everywhere else, she said.

While there’s not much the city can do to stop new people coming into a neighborhood, the city can play a role in preventing longtime residents from being forced out.

Conolly pointed to the city’s informal land bank program in which its housing finance corporation buys underused or distressed properties and sells them to developers for the express purposed of building affordable housing. The city is working to formalize that program and develop plans to protect established neighborhoods and develop more affordable housing.

The neighborhood conservation plan and affordable housing strategy will be presented to the City Council some time in August, Conolly said.