What is the Fort Worth rental market doing right now? September 2026 snapshot

Rents: What a House Leases For

Metro level first, because it sets the frame. The Texas Real Estate Research Center's Second Quarter 2026 report puts the Fort Worth-Arlington single-family lease average at $2,467 a month, $1.34 per square foot on an average 1,891 square feet. Split by size: three bedrooms or fewer average $2,144 ($1.39 per square foot) and make up 61.6 percent of leases; four or more average $2,986 ($1.25 per square foot) and make up 38.5 percent. Then the ZIP, which is what a landlord actually prices against: 76179 single-family median $2,210; 76052 (Haslet) $2,245; 76248 (Keller) $3,000 on a small active set (all RentCast, September 5, 2026). The metro average sits above the 76179 median because the metro includes the larger, newer north-side stock; use the ZIP for pricing and the metro for context.

Days to Lease: How Fast a Priced-Right House Moves

In 76179 single-family homes averaged 37 days to lease as of September 5 and all property types in the ZIP about 54 days at the end of August (RentCast). Haslet ran about 40 days on roughly 272 active listings; Keller about 29 days on roughly 70 (RentCast, September 5, 2026). The averages are inflated by homes that launched overpriced or under-prepared; a rent-ready home priced to the current active set gets most of its traffic in the first two weeks. The number to manage to is day 14, not the average.

Supply and Price Cuts: The Sale Side Is Soft

Tarrant County carried 3.8 months of housing supply in July 2026 (MetroTex Tarrant County Housing Report), and 26.9 percent of active listings had a price reduction in August (Realtor.com Residential Listings Database, county file). The Fort Worth-Arlington existing-home median was $355,000 in May, down 0.6 percent year over year, with closed sales down 1.7 percent for the month (Dallas Fed). A soft sale side does two things for a landlord: it keeps some would-be buyers renting, and it makes holding a house as a rental the stronger position for an owner who would otherwise sell into a price cut.

Jobs and Wages: The Tenant Pool

Fort Worth payroll employment grew at a 3.4 percent annualized rate over the three months ending May 2026, against 2.3 percent for Texas. The unemployment rate held at 4.0 percent, below the state's 4.3 percent. Average hourly earnings reached $37.23, up 3.4 percent year over year and above the Texas average of $35.32 (all Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, Fort Worth Economic Indicators, May 2026 data). Rent is paid out of wages; a market where wages outgrow rents is a market where a correctly priced house stays leased.

How to Read This Page

Each figure names its source and the date the source covers. The ZIP-level rents come from our own RentCast pulls; the metro table from the Texas Real Estate Research Center's quarterly report; supply from MetroTex; price cuts from Realtor.com's county file; jobs, wages, unemployment, and the sale median from the Dallas Fed. When a source has not published a newer number by refresh day, the old number stays with its old date rather than being guessed forward. What we do not publish here: ZIP-level concession rates, which no primary source reports, and any figure we could not fetch ourselves.