Even in the midst of an affordable housing crisis in Big D, the city experienced a substantial increase in renter interest in the third quarter of 2025, enough to land Dallas in the No. 22 spot of the most sought-after rental cities in the U.S.
The rankings, released by online apartment locator RentCafe, noted in a recent report that between July and September, which the site says are the busiest apartment-hunting months of the year, interest in Dallas skyrocketed, helping make it one of only eight newcomers to enter the top 30. That means Dallas leaped a whopping 25 spots from the previous quarter.
RentCafe got its numbers from compiling the number of page views, saved searches and favorited listings a city had on its own site. Fueling its rise on this year’s list, Dallas saw an increase in each of those categories. Page views for Dallas on RentCafe.com increased by 5%, for example, while favorited listings in Dallas rose by 15% and saved searches for Big D jumped by 25%, year-over-year…