Few cities have benefited as much from the recent trend of Americans increasingly moving south as Dallas.
The Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington metro area had the largest increase in population count between 2021 and 2022 of any metro area in the country, adding more than 170,000 people, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
That’s a lot of new Texans in a state that already has three of the nation’s 10 largest cities. Houston ranks fourth with 2.3 million people, Dallas ninth with 1.3 million and Austin 10th with 1 million. (Fort Worth is also in the top 15 with nearly 1 million people.)
It is unsurprising, then, that Texas has seen a boom in new real estate brokerage offices in the past five years. Dallas, too, is outpacing the rest of the country in office count, sale-to-list price ratio and average price per square foot, according to CoreLogic data shared exclusively with HousingWire.
Despite the population growth, Dallas has still had to contend with the realities of high mortgage rates and tight housing inventory — factors that have mortgage lenders, brokerages and other real estate professionals fighting for their share of shrinking pies.
Keller Williams, for example, was Dallas County’s No. 1 brokerage by listing count from 2019 through 2023. Despite its continued lead, the properties listed by the firm on Multiple Listing Services (MLSs) in the county fell from 4,360 in 2019 to 2,390 in 2023, a 45% drop as homebuying slowed significantly in Dallas and nationwide.
The top 10 brokerages in Dallas by listing count were responsible for 12,145 listings in 2023. This was 29% less than in 2019 and a difference of more than 5,000 listings.
High mortgage rates may be here to stay for longer than expected compared to earlier in the year, making it essential for brokerages to gain share amid squeezed inventory levels.
In the past five years, eXp Realty has done just that. Among brokerages with at least 100 listings per year in Dallas, eXp rocketed from 10th place in 2019 to fourth last year. The company more than doubled its share of listings during that period, going from 3.6% of the MLS listings held by these brokerages in 2019 to 7.2% in 2023.
That is all the more impressive considering that several companies lost significant listings shares in this period. Among brokerages that were in the top 10 by listings in any of the past five years, RE/MAX‘s share fell 26%, Century 21‘s fell 23%, Keller Williams’ fell 21%, Ebby Halliday‘s fell 18% and Sotheby’s International Realty‘s fell 11%.
Opendoor, an instant buyer, went big on Dallas in 2021 and 2022. It had more than 700 listings in both years before pulling back sharply with only 166 listings in 2023. That is similar to the iBuyer slowdowns in markets like Jacksonville as the industry segment struggles to gain a foothold.
eXp was not the only brokerage to gain share over the five-year period. Fathom Realty‘s 66% growth and Compass‘s 37% gain came in second and third, respectively, behind eXp.
