Raleigh vs Dallas: which should you move to?
Raleigh or Dallas? Housing, rent, crime, climate, income, taxes and transit, side by side, from each city's own published figures. Written for someone deciding where to live, not for a ranking.
Raleigh
Dallas
Both cities price in US dollars and both were priced at Freddie Mac's 7.03% rate of 24 September 2026, so the figures net directly with no rate gap. Mortgage, property tax and insurance come to about $2,808 a month on Raleigh's typical home and $3,529 on Dallas's single-family median, roughly 40% and 57% of each city's median household income, and property tax and insurance make up about $500 of the $721 gap. Dallas's extra property tax on its median, $3,731 a year, is about what North Carolina takes from a $100,000 salary, $3,708 for 2025, so no state income tax saves an owner at the medians almost nothing and a renter all of it. On the same FBI counts Raleigh is the safer city, 396 violent offenses per 100,000 against 577 and about 4.9 homicides per 100,000 against 10.5, and its labor market is the tighter, 3.1% unemployment against 4.2%. Dallas's is more than five times the size and pays more, $1,785 a week against $1,621. Choose Raleigh to own on a median income, for Medicaid expansion and a milder July. Choose Dallas for headquarters jobs, the flights and a salary well above the median.
| Measure | Raleigh | Dallas | Advantage |
|---|---|---|---|
| City population | 506,306 (2025) | 1,329,491 (2025) | Not directly comparable |
| Metro population | 1,595,720 (2025) | 8,477,157 (2025) | Not directly comparable |
| Five-year growth Growth is pressure on rents and roads as much as it is opportunity, so it is reported without a winner. | 8.2% (2020-2025) | 1.9% (2020-2025) | Not directly comparable |
What a home costs in each
The figures the two cities' rent-versus-buy and mortgage calculators run on, read from the same tables.
| Measure | Raleigh | Dallas | Advantage |
|---|---|---|---|
| Benchmark home price MLS® HPI or equivalent benchmark. Lower is treated as the advantage, which is the buyer's view rather than the owner's. | $428,671 (August 2026) | $469,900 (August 2026) | Raleigh |
| Detached house benchmark Dallas publishes a single house index rather than a composite, so the two rows repeat. | $440,555 | $469,900 | Raleigh |
| Apartment or condominium benchmark | $270,056 | $310,000 | Raleigh |
| Two-bedroom rent | $1,655/mo (average, August 2026) | $1,853/mo (average, August 2026) | Raleigh |
| One-bedroom rent | $1,409/mo | $1,416/mo | Raleigh |
| Two-bedroom rent against median income A year of two-bedroom rent as a share of the median household income below. A household paying the median rent out of the median income is a fiction, but it is the same fiction in both columns and it crosses currencies. | 23.3% of a year's income | 29.9% of a year's income | Raleigh |
| Mortgage payment on the benchmark, 20% down 30-year amortization on American monthly compounding, the convention in both. | $2,288/mo at 7.03% | $2,509/mo at 7.03% | Raleigh |
| Price to household income Benchmark price divided by the median household income below. A ratio is comparable across currencies; the dollars are not. | 5.0× | 6.3× | Raleigh |
| Property tax on the benchmark home The effective rate on market value, which is what the two rates have in common and what the Advantage column is decided on; the bills are in each city's own dollars. | $3,717/yr (0.867%, 2026) | $7,448/yr (1.585%, 2025) | Raleigh |
| Transfer tax on the benchmark home Compared as a share of the price. Where the seller pays it, it is a cost of leaving rather than arriving. | $857 (seller pays) | None | Dallas |
| Rent control A cap protects a sitting tenant and does nothing for the next lease, so neither column is simply better. | Forbidden by state law | Forbidden by state law | Not directly comparable |
Raleigh: About 0.87% of market value. Raleigh levies 90.91 cents per $100 for fiscal 2027, Wake County's 53.71 cents plus the City's 37.20 cents, against values set at the 1 January 2024 revaluation. North Carolina measures the gap itself: the Department of Revenue puts Wake's assessment level at 95.39% of sale price, which is how it publishes an effective county rate of 0.4933% against a nominal 0.5171%. Wake revalues again on 1 January 2027 and every two years after that, so the next bill resets to what houses are worth then. Inside the downtown municipal service district the bill carries a further 6.8 cents per $100. Dallas: About 1.58% of value for a homesteaded owner, worked out on the $469,900 median single-family sale price. A house in the City of Dallas and Dallas ISD is taxed by five units for 2025, which add to 2.22671 per $100 before any exemption. Each takes its own homestead exemption off the appraised value first: Dallas ISD the state's $140,000 and a further 10% of its own, and Dallas County, the City, Dallas College and the Parkland Hospital District 20% each. So Dallas County levies 0.2155 per $100 on $375,920 after a $93,980 exemption, $810; City of Dallas levies 0.6988 per $100 on $375,920 after a $93,980 exemption, $2,627; Dallas ISD levies 0.993835 per $100 on $282,910 after a $186,990 exemption, $2,812; Dallas College levies 0.106575 per $100 on $375,920 after a $93,980 exemption, $401; Parkland Hospital District levies 0.212 per $100 on $375,920 after a $93,980 exemption, $797. The five come to $7,446 a year, 1.58% of the price. Without a homestead, as a landlord or a buyer who never files, the same house owes $10,463. The appraisal district's own typical homestead is cheaper than the typical sale: its certified median market value for a City of Dallas homestead was $364,530 for the 2025 appraisal year, the value on 1 January 2025 these rates were levied on, and $364,000 for 2026. On $364,530 the same five units come to $5,465, 1.50%, lower because the school district's flat exemption is a larger share of a cheaper house. These are the 2025 rates, the bills due by 31 January 2026. The appraisal district's 2026 table was still its estimate of 4 March 2026 when these figures were retrieved, so the calculators stay on 2025 until the five units' 2026 rates are published.
How safe each city is, by the numbers it publishes
Police-reported figures for the most recent year each force or statistics agency has released. Rates describe a whole city or metro area, and the spread between neighbourhoods inside one city is usually wider than the gap between the two cities.
| Measure | Raleigh | Dallas | Advantage |
|---|---|---|---|
| Crime Severity Index Statistics Canada's weighted index for the metropolitan area, where 100 is Canada in 2006. American cities have no equivalent series. | Not published | Not published | Not directly comparable |
| Violent crime per 100,000 | 396 (2025) | 577 (2025) | Raleigh |
| Property crime per 100,000 | 2,316 (2025) | 3,081 (2025) | Raleigh |
| Homicides Counts, not rates, and a single year in a small city moves a long way on chance alone. What each figure covers is under the table. | 25 (2025) | 140 (2025) | Not directly comparable |
On the FBI's definitions, violent offenses in Raleigh went from 2,573 in 2023 to 2,399 in 2024 and 2,007 in 2025, a 16% drop in the last year, and property offenses from 12,665 to 13,854 and then 11,725. RPD's own 2025 report shows motor vehicle thefts down 32% (2,444 to 1,664), thefts from vehicles down 27%, non-fatal shooting incidents down from 91 to 79 and aggravated assaults without a firearm down 12%, while its all-assault total was flat at 7,418 and murders held at 25 after 24. The 2025 CDE counts were read on 26 September 2026 from a feed last refreshed on 15 September and can still be revised.
What the rates cover: Computed: 2,007 violent offenses (murder, rape, robbery and aggravated assault) in the FBI Crime Data Explorer's summarized data for the Raleigh Police Department (ORI NC0920100) in calendar 2025, divided by the 506,306 Vintage 2025 city population. On the CDE's own agency population of 508,719 the rate is 395. RPD's 2025 annual report does not publish a count on this definition: its total violent crime of 8,541 counts every assault, simple assaults included (7,418 in all), and lists no rapes, so it runs more than four times the FBI figure and measures something else.
Homicides: 25 murders and nonnegligent manslaughters in 2025 in both RPD's annual report and the FBI CDE, against 24 in 2024, about 4.9 per 100,000 on the city population. RPD's wider count of homicide incidents, which adds one negligent manslaughter and two justifiable homicides, was 28. The high point in the CDE series since 2021 is 45, in 2022.
On the FBI's definitions, violent offenses in Dallas went from 11,181 in 2021 to 10,255 in 2022, 9,025 in 2023, 8,747 in 2024 and 7,674 in 2025, a 12% drop in the last year and 31% in four, and property offenses from 46,991 to 49,224, a peak of 52,641 in 2023, then 45,106 and 40,962, 22% below the peak. Motor vehicle theft drove most of that swing: 11,818 in 2021, 18,457 in 2023 and 11,162 in 2025. In 2025 the CDE shows aggravated assaults down 12% (5,826 to 5,144), robberies down 10% (2,235 to 2,020), rapes down 27% (505 to 370) and murders down 23% (181 to 140). On its own definitions DPD reported violent crime down 12%, robberies down 10%, aggravated assaults down 12% and sexual assaults down 13%. The 2025 CDE counts were read on 27 September 2026 from a feed last refreshed on 15 September and can still be revised.
What the rates cover: Computed: 7,674 violent offenses (murder, rape, robbery and aggravated assault) in the FBI Crime Data Explorer's summarized data for the Dallas Police Department (ORI TXDPD0000) in calendar 2025, divided by the 1,329,491 Vintage 2025 city population. On the CDE's own agency population of 1,331,217 the rate is 576. DPD does not publish a total on this definition. The violent crime its Violent Crime Reduction Plan tracks is murder, robbery and aggravated assault, with family-violence and other aggravated assaults counted separately and rape left out. Its public incident dataset on Dallas OpenData, which the city describes as a research copy rather than the authoritative count, lists only 57 murder incidents and 12 family-violence aggravated assault incidents for 2025, so it cannot rebuild either total.
Homicides: 140 murders and nonnegligent manslaughters in 2025 in the FBI CDE, against 181 in 2024, about 10.5 per 100,000 on the city population. DPD's own year-end count was 141 homicides against 184 in 2024, a 23% drop (CBS Texas, February 2026); nothing fetched explains the gaps of one and three cases between the two series. The high point in the CDE series since 2021 is 244, in 2023.
Winters, summers and what the weather can do to a house
| Measure | Raleigh | Dallas | Advantage |
|---|---|---|---|
| January mean | 5.5 °C | 8.8 °C | Not directly comparable |
| July mean | 26.9 °C | 30.7 °C | Not directly comparable |
| Precipitation a year | 1,170 mm | 973 mm | Not directly comparable |
| Snowfall a year | 13 cm | 4 cm | Not directly comparable |
| Sunshine a year | 2,606 hours | 2,850 hours | Dallas |
NOAA NCEI 1991-2020 normals for Raleigh-Durham International Airport (station USW00013722): January mean 41.9F, July mean 80.5F, annual mean 61.2F, 46.07 in of precipitation, 5.2 in of snow. July is the warmest month, ahead of August's 78.8F, with a mean high of 90.8F; January's mean low is 31.8F. Most of the snow falls in January (2.6 in) and February (1.4 in), and September (5.15 in) and July (5.02 in) are the wettest months. Converted here to 5.5 C, 26.9 C, 1,170 mm and 13.2 cm. Sunshine hours are the older 1961-1990 NCDC means (2,606 hours, 58% of possible), since the 1991-2020 normals do not include sunshine.
Hazards: Humid subtropical, with long hot summers and thunderstorms, and winters mild enough that snow is an event. The record storm, on 24 to 25 January 2000, left 20.3 in (52 cm) at the airport, 17.9 in of it in 24 hours, beating a 1927 record of 17.8 in. Hurricanes reach Raleigh weakened but not harmless: Fran in September 1996 dropped 8.80 in (224 mm) of rain at RDU, uprooted trees across the region and did about $900 million of damage in Raleigh and Wake County, and the State Climate Office writes that no storm since has had so wide or lasting an impact on the Triangle. Flooding along the creeks after heavy rain and summer heat are the routine risks.
NOAA NCEI 1991-2020 normals for Dallas Love Field (station USW00013960), the city's own climate station about 6 miles northwest of downtown: January mean 47.8F, July mean 87.3F, annual mean 68.0F, 38.32 in of precipitation, 1.7 in of snow. July and August tie as the warmest months at 87.3F, with mean highs of 96.9F and 97.1F, and January's mean low is 37.9F. October (4.79 in) and May (4.57 in) are the wettest months and July (1.71 in) the driest, and most of the snow falls in February (0.9 in). The normals count 107.5 days a year at 90F or above, 22.4 at 100F or above and 23.1 nights at or below freezing. Dallas Fort Worth International Airport (USW00003927), where the National Weather Service keeps the metro's official record, averages 46.3F in January and 85.7F in July with 37.01 in of rain and 1.6 in of snow, 20.3 days at 100F or above and 29.2 nights at or below freezing. Converted here to 8.8 C, 30.7 C, 973 mm and 4.3 cm. That July mean is the warmest of any city this site compares, 1.5F (0.8 C) above Austin's at Camp Mabry. Sunshine hours are the older 1961-1990 NCDC means (2,850 hours, 61% of possible), since the 1991-2020 normals do not include sunshine.
Hazards: Heat is the constant. The normals give Love Field 22.4 days a year at or above 100F (37.8 C); its record since 1939 is 73 such days in 2011, including 40 in a row from 2 July to 10 August, and its highest reading is 112F (44.4 C), on 26 and 27 June 1980 and again on 22 July 2018. At DFW Airport the record is 71 days in 2011 and the longest run 42, from 23 June to 3 August 1980, when the airport reached 113F (45.0 C). The summer of 2026 is among the hottest on record: by 22 September Love Field had 54 days at 100F or above, fourth in its record, and DFW 52, tied for fifth, 27 of them in August. Hail is the costly routine hazard. NOAA's billion-dollar disaster list counts a North Texas hailstorm on 23 and 24 March 2016 at $2.06 billion in 2016 dollars, and on 11 April 2016 a supercell dropped hailstones up to 5.25 in (13.3 cm), the record for the NWS Fort Worth area, and hit 80% of the homes in Wylie, northeast of the city; Cotality counted more than 235,000 Texas homes hit by damaging hail in 2025, far more than in any other state. Tornadoes reach the city itself. On 20 October 2019 an EF3 with winds near 140 mph (225 km/h) tracked 15.76 miles (25.4 km) from near I-35E and Walnut Hill Lane through Preston Hollow to US 75 and on into Richardson, damaging a high school, a middle school and an elementary school, destroying about 118 structures and doing $1.55 billion of damage without a death; on 26 December 2015 an EF4 killed 10 people in Sunnyvale, Garland and Rowlett in eastern Dallas County. The Trinity River passes downtown between 23 miles (37 km) of levees 29 to 32 ft (8.8 to 9.8 m) high, completed in 1932 and upgraded by the Army Corps of Engineers in the 1950s. The river's record crest at Dallas, 52.6 ft (16.0 m), came in the flood of May 1908, before them; the highest since was 47.1 ft (14.4 m) in May 1990, and by November 2023 the Corps had raised the West levee to carry 277,000 cubic feet (7,844 cubic meters) a second, with the East levee still to do. Flash floods on the creeks are the more frequent danger: on 21 and 22 August 2022, 9.19 in (233 mm) fell at DFW Airport in 24 hours, second only to 9.57 in (243 mm) in September 1932, 9.14 in (232 mm) fell at Love Field and 15.16 in (385 mm) at a gauge on White Rock Creek at Scyene Road, and at least one person died. Cold is rare and badly handled when it comes. Winter Storm Uri left 5.3 in (13.5 cm) of snow at Love Field from 14 to 17 February 2021 and a low of 2F (-16.7 C) on the 16th, matched there only in January 1949 and beaten only in January 1940 (0F, -17.8 C) and December 1989 (1F, -17.2 C); DFW Airport fell to -2F (-18.9 C), the lowest in its record since 1953. ERCOT cut power across the state grid from 15 to 18 February and about 4.5 million customers lost it at the worst; Texas counted 246 deaths from the storm, 22 of them in Dallas County. In January 2026 Winter Storm Fern brought 2.4 in (6.1 cm) of snow and sleet to DFW Airport and lows of 13F (-10.6 C), and the grid held. Drought is the slow hazard. The seven water supply lakes the Texas Water Development Board counts for the Dallas area stood at 86.5% of conservation capacity on 27 September 2026, down from 98.7% at the end of June; in the 2011 to 2015 drought they fell to 62.7% before the rains of 2015 filled them. Dallas has capped lawn watering at twice a week since April 2012.
What people earn and what the government takes
| Measure | Raleigh | Dallas | Advantage |
|---|---|---|---|
| Median household income | $85,060 USD (2024) | $74,323 USD (2024) | Raleigh |
| Unemployment rate | 3.1% (July 2026) | 4.2% (July 2026) | Raleigh |
| Sales tax | 7.25% | 8.25% | Raleigh |
| Top marginal income tax Federal plus provincial or state. The American figure leaves out payroll taxes and the cost of health insurance, both of which a Canadian household covers through the tax it pays here. | 41.25% | 37% | Dallas |
| Income tax on $100,000, single filer Computed from each jurisdiction's brackets at a single filer's $100,000 and rounded to the dollar, so a gap of a dollar is rounding rather than tax. Two cities in one province or state are shown as Even, because there the two cells describe the same tax and whatever separates them is method. | $17,157 USD | $13,449 USD | Dallas |
BLS counted 784,100 nonfarm jobs in the Raleigh MSA in July 2026 (not seasonally adjusted), up 15,900 or 2.1% on the year. Construction grew fastest (+6.8%), then education and health (+4.7%), while information (-5.9%), manufacturing (-1.7%) and trade, transportation and utilities (-0.4%) shrank. Professional and business services is the largest sector at 156,200 jobs, and government, with the state capital and NC State inside it, employs 107,400. The seasonally adjusted series (FRED RALE537NA) reached 786,100 in August 2026, 2.5% above August 2025. Average weekly wages across Wake, Johnston and Franklin counties were $1,621 in the first quarter of 2026 against $1,654 nationally. The newest large employers are drug plants in Holly Springs: Fujifilm Diosynth plans 1,400 jobs there by 2031 after a $1.2 billion expansion announced in April 2024, and Amgen about 725 across two plants after a $1.02 billion second one announced in December 2024.
Main sectors: Professional and business services, the metro's largest sector, Government (the state capital, NC State University, the county school system), Education and health care (WakeMed, UNC Health Rex, Duke Raleigh), Trade, transportation and utilities, Biomanufacturing and life sciences (Fujifilm and Amgen in Holly Springs, Research Triangle Park between Raleigh and Durham).
North Carolina's flat rate has come down every year since 2022: 4.99% (2022), 4.75% (2023), 4.50% (2024), 4.25% (2025) and 3.99% for 2026 and later, with further cuts from 2027 only if revenue triggers are met. Property tax is separate, with Wake County and the City of Raleigh each levying a rate on assessed value.
BLS counted 4,353,400 nonfarm jobs in the Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington MSA in July 2026 (not seasonally adjusted), up 54,000 or 1.3% on the year. Professional and business services (+3.0%, to 805,200) and leisure and hospitality (+3.0%) grew fastest, then mining, logging and construction and education and health services (both +2.0%), while information (-2.8%), financial activities (-1.0%) and manufacturing (-0.7%) shrank. Trade, transportation and utilities is the largest sector at 895,000 jobs, and government employs 465,400. The seasonally adjusted series (FRED DALL148NA) was 4,363,400 in August 2026, 1.1% above August 2025. Average weekly wages across the metro were $1,785 in the first quarter of 2026 against $1,654 nationally. The Dallas Regional Chamber counts 21 Fortune 500 headquarters in the region as of 2025 and 44 in the Fortune 1000, among them AT&T, Texas Instruments, American Airlines, Kimberly-Clark, Toyota Motor North America and McKesson.
Main sectors: Trade, transportation and utilities, the metro's largest sector (DFW Airport, American Airlines, Southwest Airlines, BNSF Railway), Corporate headquarters and professional and business services (AT&T, Texas Instruments, McKesson, Kimberly-Clark, Toyota Motor North America), Financial activities (the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, Charles Schwab, JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs, Bank of America), Health care and education (Baylor Scott & White Health, Texas Health Resources, UT Southwestern Medical Center, Children's Health), Aerospace and advanced manufacturing (Lockheed Martin, Bell Textron, Raytheon, Texas Instruments).
Property tax is the local levy that matters. Tax Foundation puts Texas's effective property tax rate on owner-occupied homes at 1.40%, and school districts must exempt $140,000 of a homestead's value from their tax. The City of Dallas's own rate for the fiscal year that starts on 1 October 2026 is 69.78 cents per $100 of taxable value, down from 69.88 cents, the eleventh cut in a row, in a $5.66 billion budget. Proposition U, a charter amendment Dallas voters approved in November 2024, requires the council to put at least half of each year's revenue growth into the Dallas Police and Fire Pension System, with any remainder of that half going to police pay and to a force of at least 4,000 officers; the budget adopted in September 2026 funds 3,651 officers by the end of September 2027 and 3,800 a year later. The county, school district and other levies on the same bill belong to the housing layer.
Whether you need a car
| Measure | Raleigh | Dallas | Advantage |
|---|---|---|---|
| System | GoRaleigh city buses (38 fixed routes), GoTriangle regional buses to Durham, Chapel Hill, Research Triangle Park and RDU, and Amtrak's Piedmont, Carolinian and Floridian at Raleigh Union Station; no rail transit inside the city | DART buses (nearly 700 vehicles), four light rail lines on 93 miles of track, the 26-mile Silver Line commuter rail from Plano to DFW Airport (opened October 2025), the Trinity Railway Express to Fort Worth run with Trinity Metro, the Dallas Streetcar and GoLink on-demand zones | Not directly comparable |
| Commute by public transit | 1.7% (2024) | 2.0% (2024) | Dallas |
| Walk or cycle to work | 1.5% (2024) | 2.5% (2024) | Dallas |
| Airport | Raleigh-Durham International Airport (RDU), 15.6 million passengers in 2025, a record just above 2024's 15.5 million, per the Airport Authority. It sits between Raleigh and Durham, and a $1.1 billion replacement primary runway, 10,639 ft long, has been under construction since October 2023. | Dallas Fort Worth International Airport (DFW), 85,660,127 passengers in 2025, 2.5% fewer than 2024's 87,817,864, per the airport's December 2025 traffic report; 12.65 million of them were international and American Airlines carried 82.6%. ACI World ranked it the fourth-busiest airport in the world by passengers in 2025 and third by aircraft movements. Dallas Love Field (DAL), about 6 miles northwest of downtown and the birthplace and headquarters of Southwest Airlines, handled 16,899,203 passengers in 2025, 5.5% fewer than in 2024 (FAA figures as cited by Wikipedia; the airport's website refused the fetcher). | Not directly comparable |
GoRaleigh carried 7,991,200 unlinked trips in 2025 and about 25,300 a weekday in the second quarter of 2026 (APTA ridership reports, as cited by Wikipedia). Fares came back on August 1, 2024, at $1.25 a ride after the pandemic fare-free years, and riders 65 and over or 18 and under still ride free once enrolled. The half-cent Wake Transit sales tax pays for the expansion. Its first bus rapid transit line, on New Bern Avenue east of downtown, has two of three construction phases under way, and the city expects the corridor finished by the end of 2028, with lines south to Garner, west to Cary and north to North Hills planned after it. Commuter rail between Durham and Clayton, the rail half of the same plan, met what GoTriangle calls significant feasibility challenges, and the two regional planning bodies are now studying smaller, incremental passenger rail options instead. Intercity rail is moving faster: NCDOT holds a $1.09 billion federal grant (December 2023) for the Raleigh to Wake Forest segment of the S-Line to Richmond, with bridges replacing road crossings under construction in 2026, and Amtrak counted 289,230 passengers at Raleigh Union Station in fiscal 2025.
DART carried 52,823,800 unlinked trips in 2025, 28,151,100 of them by bus and 21,611,600 on light rail, and about 157,300 a weekday in the second quarter of 2026, 65,300 of them on light rail (APTA ridership reports, as cited by Wikipedia; APTA's PDFs refused the fetcher). DART's own figure is more than 171,000 passengers a day across a 700-square-mile, 12-city service area. The Trinity Railway Express, which DART runs with Fort Worth's Trinity Metro, carried 1,337,600 trips in 2025 (APTA, same source). The Silver Line opened on 25 October 2025 through Plano, Richardson, Dallas, Addison, Carrollton, Coppell and Grapevine to DFW Airport, every 30 minutes at weekday peaks and hourly otherwise. DART is paid for by a 1% sales tax in its member cities, and the suburbs have pushed back on what they pay: Plano, Irving and Farmers Branch canceled withdrawal elections set for May 2026 after agreements that return part of their sales tax over six years for local transportation projects, Addison and University Park voted to stay, and Highland Park voted by 70% to leave, with service ending on 14 May 2026.
Health care, schools and what each city is like
Health care
Care is paid for through employer or individual private insurance, Medicare and Medicaid, and North Carolina expanded Medicaid on December 1, 2023; about 740,000 people are covered by the expansion. Federal changes narrow it: non-citizen eligibility rules tighten from October 1, 2026, and from January 1, 2027 most expansion adults face a work requirement of 80 hours a month (or equivalent earnings) and renewals every six months. Three systems run Raleigh's hospitals. WakeMed's Raleigh Campus is a Level I trauma center, with a Level III center at WakeMed Cary, and WakeMed describes itself as Wake County's only provider of trauma services. UNC Health Rex, founded in 1894, is the UNC Health hospital in the city, and Duke Raleigh Hospital has 204 inpatient beds for cancer, heart, neuroscience and gastrointestinal care. The academic medical centers of Duke in Durham and UNC in Chapel Hill are inside the same region. This file did not verify a wait time figure for primary or specialist care.
Education
The Wake County Public School System is one county-wide district and enrolled 160,413 students in 2025-26, 702 fewer than the year before; it projects 161,461 across 204 schools for 2026-27. More than a quarter of the county's students now attend charter or private schools or are home-schooled, according to the News & Observer. Every address has a base school, and families can also apply to magnet and year-round calendar schools. NC State University enrolled 40,503 students in fall 2025 (30,504 undergraduate, 9,999 graduate) and is the city's research university; Meredith College, William Peace University, Shaw University and Wake Technical Community College are also in Raleigh, and Duke and UNC-Chapel Hill are in Durham and Chapel Hill. Saint Augustine's University, a historically Black university in the city, filed for Chapter 11 in April 2026 after a long fight over its accreditation and is offering no classes in fall 2026.
Living there
Raleigh is a state capital and a university town at the center of a metro of 1.6 million, and most of it lives like a ring of suburbs around a compact downtown. Two workers in three drive to work alone, fewer than one in fifty rides a bus, and more than one in five works from home. The city's greenways run for more than 100 miles along its creeks and the Neuse River, yet walking and cycling together carry 1.5% of commutes. Work is spread across the Triangle rather than gathered in the city: state government and NC State in the city, Research Triangle Park between Raleigh and Durham, drug plants in Holly Springs, and Durham and Chapel Hill close enough to share the airport. Summers are long, hot and humid, with a July mean of 80.5F, and winters are mild. The open question is whether the region can build the transit its growth now calls for. The half-cent tax Wake voters approved in 2016 is paying for more buses and a first bus rapid transit line on New Bern Avenue, due by the end of 2028, but the commuter rail at the center of that plan is back at the study stage, so for now living here without a car depends on choosing exactly where to live.
Health care
Care is paid for through employer or marketplace insurance, Medicare and Medicaid, and Texas is one of the ten states that have not expanded Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act (KFF, August 2026). It had the highest uninsured rate of any state in 2024: 16.7%, or 5,152,427 of 30,799,312 people, against 8.2% nationally and 12.0% in Georgia, the next highest, on the ACS 2024 1-year estimates. The City of Dallas's rate was 22.7% (297,684 of 1,313,770), Dallas County's 21.9% and the metro's 16.2%. Parkland Memorial Hospital, licensed for 983 beds, is Dallas County's only public hospital and UT Southwestern's primary teaching hospital; it became the first certified Level I trauma center in Texas in 1983 and runs a burn center. UT Southwestern Medical Center, whose faculty have received six Nobel Prizes, runs William P. Clements Jr. University Hospital in the Southwestern Medical District, and more than half the doctors practicing in Dallas trained there at least in part. Baylor University Medical Center, which opened in 1903 and is now the North Texas flagship of Baylor Scott & White Health, has 914 beds and a Level I trauma center that Baylor Scott & White describes as one of only three adult trauma centers in Dallas. Children's Health and UT Southwestern broke ground in October 2024 on a $5 billion pediatric campus with 552 beds to replace Children's Medical Center Dallas, projected to open in 2031. This file did not verify a wait time figure for primary or specialist care.
Education
Dallas ISD, the second-largest school district in Texas, opened the 2026-27 year on 11 August with about 132,000 students, down from about 134,300 a year earlier (KERA). Superintendent Stephanie Elizalde blamed federal immigration policy in part. KERA adds that charter schools and the state's new education savings accounts may account for some of the loss; more than 2,800 students in the district had qualified for the accounts, which help pay private school tuition, on the Comptroller's latest count. The district made pre-kindergarten free for all 3- and 4-year-olds this year and enrolled about 11,000 children in it, and the Texas Education Agency rated the district B for 2025. Southern Methodist University (12,544 students in fall 2025) is in University Park, a separate town north of downtown, the University of Texas at Dallas is in Richardson, and Dallas College runs seven campuses in Dallas County.
Living there
Dallas is the corporate and financial center of the fourth-largest metro in the country, and the metro is growing around the city rather than inside it. The Dallas-Fort Worth area added 123,557 people in 2024-25, more than any metro but Houston, while the city lost 1,808 and Dallas County lost 46,226 more residents to the rest of the country than it gained, so newcomers settle in Collin, Denton and Kaufman counties. The city has 93 miles of DART light rail and, since October 2025, a commuter line to DFW Airport, yet 68.6% of its workers drive alone and 2.0% take transit. Summer is the hard season: the July mean at Love Field is 87.3F, the warmest of any city this site compares, and the station had 54 days at 100F or more by late September 2026. Hail and tornadoes are the costly weather. Texas takes no income tax, and 22.7% of the city's residents have no health insurance. The open question is whether the city can hold up its end as the region spreads outward: three suburbs won back part of the sales tax they pay DART and a fourth voted to leave, voters wrote a minimum of 4,000 police officers into the charter in 2024 and the adopted budget plans for 3,800 by September 2028, and Dallas ISD began 2026-27 with about 2,300 fewer students than the year before.
Where each city wins, and where it loses
Both cities price in US dollars and both were priced at Freddie Mac's 7.03% rate for 24 September 2026, so the figures net directly with no rate gap. Raleigh's price is Zillow's typical home value for the city, $428,671 in August 2026 and 1.7% below a year earlier; Dallas's is the NTREIS median of single-family houses sold in the city, $469,900 in August, 6.0% below. Zillow's all-homes index for Dallas is lower, at $305,765. Raleigh's is 5.0 times its 2024 median household income of $85,060 and Dallas's about 6.3 times its $74,323. At 20% down, Raleigh's $342,937 loan costs about $2,288 a month and Dallas's $375,920 loan about $2,509. Property tax is about $3,717 a year in Raleigh, 0.867% of value, against $7,448 in Dallas with a homestead, an effective 1.58%, and insurance is budgeted at $210 a month against $400. The three lines come to about $2,808 and $3,529, roughly 40% and 57% of local median income; of the $721 gap about $221 is the mortgage, $311 the property tax and $190 the insurance. On the same RentCafe series for August 2026 a one-bedroom averaged $1,409 in Raleigh and $1,416 in Dallas, and a two-bedroom $1,655 and $1,853.
This is one of the pairs where the definitions match: both cities' figures are the FBI's summarized counts for 2025, divided by Census Vintage 2025 populations and read a day apart, on 26 and 27 September 2026. Raleigh is lower on all three lines. Its 2,007 violent offenses come to 396 per 100,000 and Dallas's 7,674 to 577, and property offenses to 2,316 against 3,081. Homicide is the widest gap: 25 in Raleigh, about 4.9 per 100,000, and 140 in Dallas, about 10.5, after 181 in the federal file. Neither department's own total can stand in for the FBI's. Raleigh's counts every assault, simple assaults included, and runs more than four times the federal figure; the Dallas Police Department's leaves rape out, and its public incident data withhold most murders. Both are improving. Violent offenses dropped 16% in Raleigh in 2025, from 2,399, and 12% in Dallas, from 8,747, where they have dropped 31% in four years. Motor vehicle theft drove most of Dallas's property swing, from a peak of 18,457 in 2023 to 11,162, and Raleigh's police counted a 32% drop in the same crime. Both sets of counts can still be revised.
Dallas is warmer in both seasons. January averages 8.8 C at Love Field against 5.5 C at Raleigh-Durham International, and July 30.7 C, the warmest July mean of the fourteen cities this site compares, against 26.9 C. Love Field's normals count 22.4 days a year at or above 100F (37.8 C). Raleigh is wetter, 1,170 mm against 973 mm, gets 13.2 cm of snow against 4.3 cm, and on the older 1961-1990 series sees less sun, 2,606 hours against 2,850. The storms differ in kind. Raleigh's record is snow, 20.3 in (52 cm) on 24 to 25 January 2000, and its worst hurricane was Fran, which in September 1996 dropped 8.80 in (224 mm) of rain at RDU and did about $900 million of damage in Raleigh and Wake County. Dallas's are hail, with stones up to 5.25 in (13.3 cm) in April 2016, tornadoes such as the October 2019 EF3, flash floods on its creeks and the rare hard freeze: Winter Storm Uri brought 2F (-16.7 C) in February 2021 while ERCOT cut power across the state grid. Insurance prices the difference at $210 a month against $400, and an owner's utility premium over a renter at $130 against $150.
Dallas's labor market is more than five times the size and pays more; Raleigh's is tighter and growing faster. Unemployment was 3.1% in Raleigh-Cary and 4.2% in Dallas-Fort Worth in July 2026, seasonally adjusted, and nonfarm jobs grew 2.1% on the year to 784,100 against 1.3% to 4,353,400. Professional and business services is Raleigh's largest sector at 156,200 jobs, then government, with the state capital and NC State inside it, at 107,400. Dallas's is trade, transportation and utilities at 895,000, then professional and business services at 805,200, and the region counts 21 Fortune 500 headquarters. Average weekly wages were $1,785 around Dallas and $1,621 around Raleigh in the first quarter of 2026, either side of the national $1,654, while city median household income runs the other way, $85,060 against $74,323 in 2024. Tax is North Carolina's flat rate against none. A single filer on $100,000 pays about $17,157 in Raleigh for 2025, $3,708 of it to the state, and $13,449 in Dallas. On the two medians Dallas's property tax is $3,731 a year higher, which North Carolina's 2025 rate would match at about $100,500 of income. Sales tax is 7.25% in Wake against 8.25%.
Both are car cities, and Dallas has far more rail for about the same share of riders. In 2024, 2.0% of Dallas workers took transit and 2.5% walked or cycled, against 1.7% and 1.5% in Raleigh; 68.6% drove alone against 66.3%, and 21.8% of Raleigh's workers worked from home against 13.5%. DART runs four light rail lines on 93 miles of track, nearly 700 buses and, since October 2025, the 26-mile Silver Line from Plano to DFW Airport, and it carried 52,823,800 trips in 2025. GoRaleigh carried 7,991,200, all by bus, and there is no rail transit inside the city. Raleigh's case is what Wake County's half-cent transit tax, collected since 2017, is building: a first bus rapid transit line on New Bern Avenue, due by the end of 2028, while the commuter rail in the same plan is back at the study stage. The airports are far apart. DFW handled 85,660,127 passengers in 2025 and Love Field 16,899,203 more; RDU, which also serves Durham and Chapel Hill, handled a record 15.6 million.
Medicaid is the state line that matters most here. North Carolina expanded it on 1 December 2023 and about 740,000 people are covered through the expansion, though from 1 January 2027 most expansion adults face a work requirement of 80 hours a month. Texas has not expanded it and had the highest uninsured rate of any state in 2024, 16.7%; the City of Dallas's was 22.7%, and Raleigh's profile gives no rate. Raleigh's hospitals are WakeMed, whose Raleigh campus is a Level I trauma center, UNC Health Rex and Duke Raleigh. Dallas has Parkland Memorial Hospital, UT Southwestern's primary teaching hospital and the first certified Level I trauma center in Texas, and Baylor University Medical Center, which runs another. Neither profile verified a wait time. The Wake County Public School System enrolled 160,413 in 2025-26, 702 fewer than a year earlier, and gives every address a base school. Dallas ISD, the second-largest district in Texas, opened 2026-27 with about 132,000 students against about 134,300, made pre-kindergarten free for all 3- and 4-year-olds and was rated B by the state for 2025. NC State enrolled 40,503 in fall 2025; Southern Methodist, with 12,544, is in University Park, a separate town.
What people underestimate is how differently the two property taxes behave after a purchase. Raleigh's bill is two rates, Wake County's 53.71 cents and the City's 37.20 cents per $100 for fiscal 2027, on values set at the 1 January 2024 revaluation; the state measured those at 95.39% of sale prices, so the 90.91 cents is 0.867% of what a buyer pays. Wake revalues next on 1 January 2027 and every two years after. Dallas's bill is five taxing units on a value the Dallas Central Appraisal District sets every year. The homestead has to be filed, or the median house owes $10,463 rather than $7,448. A homestead's appraised value may then rise no more than 10% a year, but a buyer starts at full value, so the seller's bill is no guide; the district's own median City of Dallas homestead was $364,530 for 2025, on which the five units come to 1.50%. The rates are moving apart. Wake and Raleigh raised theirs 2.0 and 1.7 cents for fiscal 2027, while the City of Dallas cut its own for the eleventh year in a row, to 69.78 cents from 1 October 2026, and it is one of five units on the bill.
Better here
- Mortgage, property tax and insurance come to about $2,808 a month at the 7.03% rate of 24 September 2026, roughly 40% of local median income, against $3,529 and 57% in Dallas at the same rate.
- Property tax is about $3,717 a year on the typical home for fiscal 2027, 0.867% of value, against $7,448 and an effective 1.58% on the Dallas median house for the 2025 tax year.
- Violent crime was 396 per 100,000 in 2025 on the FBI's counts against 577 in Dallas on the same basis, and there were 25 homicides, about 4.9 per 100,000, against 140 at about 10.5.
- Metro unemployment was 3.1% in July 2026, seasonally adjusted, and nonfarm jobs grew 2.1% on the year, against 4.2% and 1.3% in Dallas-Fort Worth.
- North Carolina expanded Medicaid on 1 December 2023, where Texas has not and had the highest uninsured rate of any state in 2024, 16.7%, with the City of Dallas at 22.7%.
- July averages 26.9 C on the 1991-2020 normals, against 30.7 C at Love Field, where the same normals count 22.4 days a year at or above 100F (37.8 C).
Worse here
- A single filer on $100,000 pays about $17,157 in income tax for 2025, $3,708 of it to North Carolina, against $13,449 of federal tax alone in Dallas.
- Average weekly wages in the metro were $1,621 in the first quarter of 2026, below the national $1,654, against $1,785 around Dallas.
- RDU handled a record 15.6 million passengers in 2025, against 85,660,127 at DFW and 16,899,203 at Dallas Love Field.
- GoRaleigh's 7,991,200 trips in 2025 were all by bus and there is no rail transit inside the city, against DART's 93 miles of light rail and 52,823,800 trips.
- January averages 5.5 C with 13.2 cm of snow on the 1991-2020 normals, against 8.8 C and 4.3 cm in Dallas.
- The metro's 784,100 nonfarm jobs are under a fifth of Dallas-Fort Worth's 4,353,400, and bills rest on 2024 values until Wake revalues on 1 January 2027.
Choose Raleigh if
- you want to own a house on a median income, at about 40% of it a month rather than 57%
- you work in state government, a university, life sciences or professional services, or at Duke, UNC or Research Triangle Park
- you may need Medicaid, or work in a job with thin health coverage
- you would rather have a 26.9 C July and the odd snowfall than about 22 days a year at 100F
The Raleigh guide · Neighborhoods · Raleigh rent vs buy · Raleigh mortgage calculator
Better here
- Texas levies no income tax, so $100,000 pays $13,449 in federal tax for 2025 and $13,170 for 2026, against about $17,157 and $16,651 in Raleigh.
- Average weekly wages in the metro were $1,785 in the first quarter of 2026, against $1,654 nationally and $1,621 around Raleigh.
- The metro had 4,353,400 nonfarm jobs in July 2026, more than five times Raleigh-Cary's, and the region counts 21 Fortune 500 headquarters.
- DFW handled 85,660,127 passengers in 2025 and Love Field another 16,899,203, against 15.6 million at RDU.
- DART runs 93 miles of light rail and, since October 2025, the Silver Line to DFW Airport, and carried 52,823,800 trips in 2025 against GoRaleigh's 7,991,200.
- January averages 8.8 C with 4.3 cm of snow a year on the 1991-2020 normals, against 5.5 C and 13.2 cm in Raleigh.
Worse here
- Mortgage, property tax and insurance come to about $3,529 a month on the August 2026 median, roughly 57% of the city's 2024 median household income, against $2,808 and 40% in Raleigh at the same 7.03%.
- Property tax on the median house is $7,448 a year for the 2025 tax year with a homestead and $10,463 without one, against about $3,717 in Raleigh.
- There were 140 homicides in 2025, about 10.5 per 100,000, against 25 and about 4.9 in Raleigh, and property crime ran 3,081 per 100,000 against 2,316 on the same FBI counts.
- Texas had the highest uninsured rate of any state in 2024, 16.7%, the City of Dallas's was 22.7%, and in August 2026 Texas was one of ten states that have not expanded Medicaid.
- July averages 30.7 C, the warmest July mean of the fourteen cities this site compares, and Love Field had 54 days at or above 100F (37.8 C) by 22 September 2026.
- Home insurance is budgeted at $400 a month against $210 in Raleigh, because North Texas hail is a routine cost and tornadoes reach the city itself, as in October 2019.
Choose Dallas if
- you want a labor market of 4,353,400 jobs in corporate headquarters, finance, logistics or aerospace, with pay above the national average
- you rent, or own and earn well above about $100,500, the point where North Carolina's 2025 rate outweighs Dallas's extra property tax on the two medians
- you fly often enough that an airport handling 85,660,127 passengers in 2025 changes how you travel
- you want an 8.8 C January and can plan a summer around days at 100F
The Dallas guide · Neighborhoods · Dallas rent vs buy · Dallas mortgage calculator
Raleigh or Dallas, in short
Is Raleigh or Dallas cheaper to live in?
Raleigh, to own, by about $721 a month. Both cities price in US dollars and both were priced at the same 7.03% mortgage rate of 24 September 2026, so the figures net directly. Raleigh's typical home was $428,671 in August 2026 and the Dallas single-family median $469,900, and at 20% down the mortgage is about $2,288 against $2,509. Property tax is about $3,717 a year against $7,448 and insurance $210 a month against $400, so the three lines come to about $2,808 in Raleigh and $3,529 in Dallas, roughly 40% and 57% of each city's median household income. Renting is closer on the same RentCafe series for August 2026: a one-bedroom averaged $1,409 in Raleigh and $1,416 in Dallas, a two-bedroom $1,655 and $1,853, about 23% and 30% of median income. North Carolina takes income tax, $3,708 on $100,000 for 2025, and Texas does not; sales tax is 7.25% in Wake against 8.25%.
Is Raleigh or Dallas safer?
Raleigh, on figures built the same way. Both are the FBI's summarized counts for 2025 divided by Census estimates. Violent offenses ran 396 per 100,000 in Raleigh against 577 in Dallas, and property offenses 2,316 against 3,081. Homicide is the widest gap: 25 in Raleigh, about 4.9 per 100,000, and 140 in Dallas, about 10.5, where the police department's own count was 141 against 184 in 2024. Both improved in 2025, with violent offenses dropping 16% in Raleigh and 12% in Dallas. Each department's own total is built on a different definition, Raleigh's counting simple assaults and Dallas's leaving rape out, so neither is used. The counts were read on 26 and 27 September 2026 and can still be revised.
Which has the better job market, Raleigh or Dallas?
Raleigh's is tighter and growing faster; Dallas's is more than five times the size and pays more. Unemployment was 3.1% in Raleigh-Cary and 4.2% in Dallas-Fort Worth in July 2026, seasonally adjusted, and nonfarm jobs grew 2.1% to 784,100 against 1.3% to 4,353,400. Average weekly wages were $1,621 around Raleigh and $1,785 around Dallas in the first quarter of 2026, against $1,654 nationally. Raleigh's work is professional services, state government and NC State, with Research Triangle Park, Duke, UNC and the Holly Springs drug plants in the region. Dallas's is logistics around DFW Airport, corporate headquarters, finance and aerospace, with 21 Fortune 500 headquarters in the region. City median household incomes were $85,060 and $74,323 in 2024, and the metros' $102,144 and $92,733.
Does Texas having no income tax make Dallas cheaper than Raleigh?
For a renter, yes; for an owner at the two medians, only above about $100,500 of income. A single filer on $100,000 pays about $17,157 in Raleigh for 2025, $3,708 of it to North Carolina, against $13,449 of federal tax alone in Dallas, and North Carolina's flat rate drops from 4.25% to 3.99% for 2026. Texas collects through property instead. Dallas's five taxing units take $7,448 a year on the median house with a homestead, an effective 1.58%, against about $3,717 on Raleigh's typical home, 0.867%, a difference of $3,731 a year, which is where North Carolina's 2025 rate catches up. Sales tax is 8.25% in Dallas against 7.25% in Wake, which tips a household that spends most of what it earns further toward Raleigh. Both bills can move: Wake revalues on 1 January 2027, and a Dallas buyer is taxed on full appraised value rather than the seller's capped one.
Where the figures come from
Housing figures are the ones behind each city's calculators, dated on those pages. The rest are listed here with the date they were retrieved. See the methodology for how facts, estimates and opinion are kept apart.
- Annual Estimates of the Resident Population for Incorporated Places in North Carolina: April 1, 2020 to July 1, 2025 (SUB-EST2025) · US Census Bureau · retrieved Supports: City population, Five-year growth, Violent crime rate, Property crime rate, Homicides
- Annual Resident Population Estimates and Components of Change for Metropolitan and Micropolitan Statistical Areas and Their Counties: April 1, 2020 to July 1, 2025 (CBSA-EST2025-ALLDATA) · US Census Bureau · retrieved Supports: Metro population, Five-year growth
- Annual Resident Population Estimates for Combined Statistical Areas: April 1, 2020 to July 1, 2025 (CSA-EST2025-ALLDATA) · US Census Bureau · retrieved Supports: Metro population
- Crime Data Explorer summarized agency data, Raleigh Police Department (NC0920100): violent crime, property crime and homicide, 2021-2025 · FBI · retrieved Supports: Violent crime rate, Property crime rate, Homicides, Crime trend
- 2025 Annual Crime Data · Raleigh Police Department · retrieved Supports: Violent crime rate, Property crime rate, Homicides, Crime trend
- Raleigh's Crime Data · City of Raleigh · retrieved Supports: Crime trend
- US Climate Normals 1991-2020, station USW00013722 Raleigh-Durham International Airport (Access Data Service) · NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information · retrieved Supports: January mean, July mean, Annual precipitation, Annual snowfall, Climate normals, January 41.9F, July 80.5F and August 78.8F from the monthly series, and annual mean 61.2F, precipitation 46.07 in and snowfall 5.2 in from dataset=normals-annualseasonal-1991-2020 for the same station
- Average Annual Sunshine in US Cities · Current Results (NCDC Comparative Climatic Data, 1961-1990) · retrieved Supports: Sunshine hours
- Raleigh's Record Snow Surprised Everyone in January 2000 · North Carolina State Climate Office · retrieved Supports: Climate hazards
- Then and Now, Fran a Standard-Bearer for Hurricane Destruction · North Carolina State Climate Office · retrieved Supports: Climate hazards
- Hurricane Fran, September 1996 · National Weather Service, Raleigh · retrieved Supports: Climate hazards
- ACS 2024 1-year tables B08301 and B19013 for Raleigh city and the Raleigh-Cary MSA · Census Reporter API (US Census Bureau ACS) · retrieved Supports: Median household income, Transit commute share, Walk and cycle commute share, Character
- Unemployment Rate in Raleigh-Cary, NC (MSA), RALE537UR and RALE537URN · FRED, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis (BLS LAUS data) · retrieved Supports: Unemployment rate
- All Employees: Total Nonfarm in Raleigh-Cary, NC (MSA), RALE537NA · FRED, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis (BLS CES data) · retrieved Supports: Labour market
- Raleigh, NC, Area Economic Summary · US Bureau of Labor Statistics · retrieved Supports: Unemployment rate, Main sectors, Labour market
- FUJIFILM Diosynth Biotechnologies Expanding Manufacturing Operations in Holly Springs · Wake County Government · retrieved Supports: Main sectors, Labour market
- Amgen to add 370 jobs as part of $1B investment in Holly Springs, NC, officials say · WRAL · retrieved Supports: Main sectors, Labour market
- Current Sales and Use Tax Rates (effective July 1, 2026) · North Carolina Department of Revenue · retrieved Supports: Sales tax
- Investment in Wake County Transit System Begins · Research Triangle Park · retrieved Supports: Sales tax, Transit ridership
- Prepared Food & Beverage Tax · Wake County Tax Administration · retrieved Supports: Sales tax
- Tax Rate Schedules · North Carolina Department of Revenue · retrieved Supports: Top marginal income tax, Income tax on $100,000, Tax notes
- North Carolina Standard Deduction or North Carolina Itemized Deductions · North Carolina Department of Revenue · retrieved Supports: Income tax on $100,000
- 2025 D-401 North Carolina Individual Income Tax Instructions · North Carolina Department of Revenue · retrieved Supports: Income tax on $100,000
- 2025 Tax Brackets and Federal Income Tax Rates · Tax Foundation · retrieved Supports: Top marginal income tax, Income tax on $100,000
- 2026 Tax Brackets and Federal Income Tax Rates · Tax Foundation · retrieved Supports: Top marginal income tax, Income tax on $100,000
- GoRaleigh (citing the APTA Transit Ridership Reports, Q4 2025 and Q2 2026) · Wikipedia · retrieved Supports: Transit system, Transit ridership
- GoRaleigh Resumes Fare Collection · GoRaleigh · retrieved Supports: Transit ridership
- Raleigh City Council Awards Second Construction Contract for Wake BRT: New Bern Avenue · City of Raleigh · retrieved Supports: Transit ridership, Character
- Wake BRT: New Bern Avenue · City of Raleigh · retrieved Supports: Transit ridership
- Commuter Rail · GoTriangle · retrieved Supports: Transit ridership, Character
- Construction Advances on S-Line Rail Corridor in Wake County · North Carolina Department of Transportation · retrieved Supports: Transit ridership
- Raleigh Union Station (citing Amtrak fiscal 2025 station ridership) · Wikipedia · retrieved Supports: Transit system, Transit ridership
- Just in: RDU Airport welcomed 15.6 million total passengers in 2025, up slightly from the previous year · Raleigh-Durham Airport Authority (RDU Airport on X) · retrieved Supports: Airport passengers
- Raleigh-Durham International Airport (2025 and 2024 passenger totals) · Wikipedia · retrieved Supports: Airport passengers
- Big Runway, Big Numbers, Big Progress · Raleigh-Durham International Airport · retrieved Supports: Airport passengers
- NCDHHS Launches the Know What's Next Toolkit on Medicaid Changes Starting Oct. 1, 2026 · North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services · retrieved Supports: Health care
- Trauma Centers · WakeMed Health & Hospitals · retrieved Supports: Health care
- About Duke Raleigh · Duke Health · retrieved Supports: Health care
- UNC Rex Healthcare · Wikipedia · retrieved Supports: Health care
- Wake's student enrollment has dropped overall, but pockets of growth remain · The News & Observer (via Yahoo News) · retrieved Supports: Education
- Stats and Facts · Wake County Public School System · retrieved Supports: Education
- Base Schools · Wake County Public School System · retrieved Supports: Education
- About Us (fall 2025 headcount enrollment) · North Carolina State University Catalog · retrieved Supports: Education
- Bankrupt Saint Augustine's Will Not Offer Fall Classes · Inside Higher Ed · retrieved Supports: Education
- Saint Augustine's University (North Carolina) · Wikipedia · retrieved Supports: Education
- Trails · City of Raleigh Parks, Recreation and Cultural Resources · retrieved Supports: Character
- Annual Estimates of the Resident Population for Incorporated Places in Texas: April 1, 2020 to July 1, 2025 (SUB-EST2025) · US Census Bureau · retrieved Supports: City population, Five-year growth, Violent crime rate, Property crime rate, Homicides, Character
- Crime Data Explorer summarized agency data, Dallas Police Department (TXDPD0000): violent crime, property crime, homicide, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, larceny, motor vehicle theft and arson, 2021-2025 · FBI · retrieved Supports: Violent crime rate, Property crime rate, Homicides, Crime trend
- Violent Crime Reduction Plan Update, Public Safety Committee, June 3, 2025 · Dallas Police Department (City of Dallas) · retrieved Supports: Violent crime rate, Crime trend
- Police Incidents (Dallas Police Public Data, RMS incidents from June 1, 2014) · City of Dallas OpenData · retrieved Supports: Violent crime rate
- Dallas sees lowest violent crime numbers since 2015 as chief credits new crime strategies · CBS Texas · retrieved Supports: Homicides, Crime trend
- US Climate Normals 1991-2020, station USW00013960 Dallas Love Field (Access Data Service) · NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information · retrieved Supports: January mean, July mean, Annual precipitation, Annual snowfall, Climate normals, Climate hazards, Character, January 47.8F, July and August 87.3F from the monthly series, and annual mean 68.0F, precipitation 38.32 in, snowfall 1.7 in and the counts of days at 90F and 100F and nights at freezing from dataset=normals-annualseasonal-1991-2020 for the same station
- US Climate Normals 1991-2020, station USW00003927 Dallas Fort Worth International Airport (Access Data Service) · NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information · retrieved Supports: Climate normals
- Global Historical Climatology Network daily summaries, Dallas Love Field (USW00013960), 1939-2026 · NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information · retrieved Supports: Climate hazards, Character, 73 days at or above 100F in 2011 and 40 in a row from 2 July to 10 August 2011, 54 in 2026 through 22 September, 112F on 26 and 27 June 1980 and 22 July 2018, 5.3 in of snow from 14 to 17 February 2021, 2F on 16 February 2021, 31 January 1949, 1F on 23 December 1989 and 0F on 23 January 1940, 13F on 25 January 2026
- Global Historical Climatology Network daily summaries, Dallas Fort Worth International Airport (USW00003927), 1953-2026 · NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information · retrieved Supports: Climate hazards, 113F on 26 and 27 June 1980, -2F on 16 February 2021, 2.4 in of snow and sleet on 24 and 25 January 2026
- Dallas/Fort Worth: Annual and Consecutive 100 Degree Days (last updated 22 September 2026) · National Weather Service, Fort Worth/Dallas · retrieved Supports: Climate hazards
- Weather and Climate Billion-Dollar Disasters to affect the U.S. from 1980-2024 (events list) · NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information · retrieved Supports: Climate hazards
- April 11th 2016 Hail Storm · National Weather Service, Fort Worth/Dallas · retrieved Supports: Climate hazards
- Cotality 2026 Report: Hail risk now rivals major hurricanes (2026 Severe Convective Storm Risk Report) · Cotality · retrieved Supports: Climate hazards
- North Texas Tornadoes, October 20, 2019 · National Weather Service, Fort Worth/Dallas · retrieved Supports: Climate hazards
- 2019 North Dallas tornado (path length, structures destroyed, damage, casualties) · Wikipedia · retrieved Supports: Climate hazards
- December 26, 2015 Tornado Outbreak · National Weather Service, Fort Worth/Dallas · retrieved Supports: Climate hazards
- Dallas Levee System · City of Dallas, Trinity River Corridor Project · retrieved Supports: Climate hazards
- Trinity River at Dallas (DALT2), historic crests · NOAA National Water Prediction Service · retrieved Supports: Climate hazards
- Milestone Achievement for Dallas Floodway Project: Providing Flood Risk Management to Communities · US Army Corps of Engineers, Fort Worth District (DVIDS) · retrieved Supports: Climate hazards
- Wettest 24 hours in nearly a century for Dallas-Fort Worth · Yale Climate Connections · retrieved Supports: Climate hazards
- February 2021 Winter Storm-Related Deaths, Texas (mortality surveillance report) · Texas Department of State Health Services · retrieved Supports: Climate hazards
- The Timeline and Events of the February 2021 Texas Electric Grid Blackouts · The University of Texas at Austin Energy Institute · retrieved Supports: Climate hazards
- How the Texas power grid is holding up during the winter storm · CBS Texas · retrieved Supports: Climate hazards
- Energy Secretary Issues Emergency Order to Secure Texas Grid Amid Winter Storm Fern · US Department of Energy · retrieved Supports: Climate hazards
- Dallas Area Reservoirs (daily storage, percent full) · Texas Water Development Board, Water Data for Texas · retrieved Supports: Climate hazards
- Frequently Asked Questions (watering schedule) and City of Dallas Water Conservation Ordinance · Dallas Water Utilities, Save Dallas Water · retrieved Supports: Climate hazards
- ACS 2024 1-year tables B08301 and B19013 for Dallas city and the Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington MSA · Census Reporter API (US Census Bureau ACS) · retrieved Supports: Median household income, Transit commute share, Walk and cycle commute share, Character
- ACS 2024 1-year table B27001 (health insurance coverage) for the 50 states, DC, the US, Dallas County, Dallas city and the Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington MSA · Census Reporter API (US Census Bureau ACS) · retrieved Supports: Health care, Character
- Unemployment Rate in Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, TX (MSA), DALL148UR and DALL148URN · FRED, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis (BLS LAUS data) · retrieved Supports: Unemployment rate
- All Employees: Total Nonfarm in Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, TX (MSA), DALL148NA · FRED, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis (BLS CES data) · retrieved Supports: Labour market
- Dallas-Fort Worth Area Economic Summary · US Bureau of Labor Statistics · retrieved Supports: Unemployment rate, Main sectors, Labour market
- Dallas Regional Economic Development Guide 2026: Major Companies and Headquarters · Dallas Regional Chamber · retrieved Supports: Main sectors, Labour market
- City Sales and Use Tax (city rate table) · Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts · retrieved Supports: Sales tax
- Transit Sales and Use Tax (Dallas MTA, effective January 1, 1984) · Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts · retrieved Supports: Sales tax, Transit ridership
- Sales and Use Tax · Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts · retrieved Supports: Sales tax
- Texas Tax Rates & Rankings · Tax Foundation · retrieved Supports: Top marginal income tax, Income tax on $100,000, Tax notes, Character
- Property Tax Exemptions · Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts · retrieved Supports: Tax notes
- Dallas approves $5.66 billion budget for 2026-27 fiscal year · Lake Highlands Advocate · retrieved Supports: Tax notes, Character
- City of Dallas Update on Proposition U, Police and Fire Funding Appropriation · City of Dallas · retrieved Supports: Tax notes, Character
- About DART (DART facts) · Dallas Area Rapid Transit · retrieved Supports: Transit system, Transit ridership, Character
- Silver Line Launches Oct. 25, Connecting Seven Cities and DFW Airport with Modern, Reliable Transit · Dallas Area Rapid Transit · retrieved Supports: Transit system, Transit ridership, Character
- Dallas Area Rapid Transit (citing the APTA Transit Ridership Reports, Q4 2025 and Q2 2026, through Template:American transit ridership) · Wikipedia · retrieved Supports: Transit system, Transit ridership
- DART services in Richardson, Plano to remain unchanged as Highland Park withdraws · Community Impact · retrieved Supports: Transit ridership, Character
- DFW Total Passengers, December 2025 (calendar year 2025 vs 2024) · Dallas Fort Worth International Airport · retrieved Supports: Airport passengers
- World's Busiest Airports: Atlanta Holds, Asia Climbs (2025 passenger and movement rankings) · ACI World · retrieved Supports: Airport passengers
- Dallas Love Field (2025 passenger totals from the FAA, location, Southwest Airlines) · Wikipedia · retrieved Supports: Airport passengers, Climate normals
- Status of State Medicaid Expansion Decisions · KFF · retrieved Supports: Health care
- Parkland Memorial Hospital · UT Southwestern Medical Center · retrieved Supports: Health care
- About the Trauma Center · Parkland Health · retrieved Supports: Health care
- Baylor University Medical Center, part of Baylor Scott & White Health · Baylor Scott & White Health · retrieved Supports: Health care
- Children's Health and UT Southwestern break ground on new Dallas pediatric campus, announce $100 million donation from The Rees-Jones Foundation · UT Southwestern Medical Center · retrieved Supports: Health care
- UT Southwestern and Children's Health receive $25 million from the Harry W. Bass, Jr. Foundation for new pediatric campus · UT Southwestern Medical Center · retrieved Supports: Health care
- New Dallas Pediatric Campus Puts Children First · Southwestern Medical District · retrieved Supports: Health care
- On Dallas ISD's first day of school, enrollment's down, but letter grade may be up · KERA News · retrieved Supports: Education, Character
- Southern Methodist University (fall 2025 enrollment, University Park) · Wikipedia · retrieved Supports: Education
- University of Texas at Dallas (Richardson) · Wikipedia · retrieved Supports: Education
- Dallas College (seven campuses in Dallas County) · Wikipedia · retrieved Supports: Education
- Zillow Home Value Index, all homes, middle tier, smoothed and seasonally adjusted, by city · Zillow Research · retrieved Supports: A typical home value of $428,671 for the city of Raleigh in August 2026, $436,286 in August 2025, so a fall of 1.7% over the year
- Zillow Home Value Index, single-family and condominium series, by city · Zillow Research · retrieved Supports: A typical single-family value of $440,555 in the city of Raleigh in August 2026, down 1.5% on the year, A typical condominium value of $270,056 in the same month, down 8.0% on the year, from the condominium file at https://files.zillowstatic.com/research/public_csvs/zhvi/City_zhvi_uc_condo_tier_0.33_0.67_sm_sa_month.csv
- Raleigh, NC average rent and rent trends · RentCafe / Yardi Matrix · retrieved Supports: An average Raleigh apartment rent of $1,588, down 1.61% from $1,613 a year earlier, updated 31 August 2026, Average rents of $1,322 studio, $1,409 one-bedroom, $1,655 two-bedroom and $2,028 three-bedroom
- Wake County tax rates, current to 2017 · Wake County Department of Tax Administration · retrieved Supports: A Wake County rate of 53.71 cents per $100 for 2026, against 51.71 cents in 2025, A City of Raleigh rate of 37.20 cents per $100 for 2026, against 35.50 cents in 2025, A Raleigh downtown municipal service district rate of 6.8 cents per $100, levied only inside the district, 2024 marked as a revaluation year
- Sales assessment ratio studies as of January 1, 2025 · North Carolina Department of Revenue, Local Government Division · retrieved Supports: Wake County last revalued in 2024, A median sales assessment ratio of 95.39% for Wake: assessed values are 95.39% of sale prices, An effective county tax rate of 0.4933% against a nominal 0.5171%, computed as rate times assessment level, A coefficient of dispersion of 8.64 for Wake, Wake's next reappraisal scheduled for 2027
- Primary Mortgage Market Survey, 24 September 2026 · Freddie Mac · retrieved Supports: A 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaging 7.03%, up from 6.95% the week before and 6.30% a year earlier, Rates for first-lien prime conventional conforming home purchase mortgages with a loan-to-value of 80%, which is the 20% down payment the hub's payment figure assumes
- Zillow Observed Rent Index, all homes plus multifamily, smoothed, by city · Zillow Research · retrieved Supports: An observed rent index of $1,577 for the city of Raleigh in August 2026, up 0.45% from $1,570 a year earlier
- Wake County commissioners adopt $2.28 billion fiscal year 2027 budget · Wake County · retrieved Supports: The county property tax rate rises 2 cents to 53.71 cents per $100 for FY2027, adopted 1 June 2026
- Raleigh leaders approve budget with property tax increase · WRAL · retrieved Supports: The City of Raleigh's FY2027 budget raises the property tax rate by 1.7 cents per $100
- Wake County shortens revaluation cycle · Wake County · retrieved Supports: The last revaluation took effect on 1 January 2024, The next revaluations take effect on 1 January 2027 and 1 January 2029, and every two years after that
- Commissioner Causey negotiates settlement on Rate Bureau's homeowners' insurance request · North Carolina Department of Insurance · retrieved Supports: Base rate increases of 7.5% on 1 June 2025 and 7.5% on 1 June 2026 in territory 270, the cities of Durham and Raleigh, against a Rate Bureau request of 39.8%, No further rate filing before 1 June 2027
- How much is homeowners insurance in Raleigh, NC? · Insure.com · retrieved Supports: An average Raleigh premium of $2,850 a year for $300,000 of dwelling cover, $100,000 of liability and a $1,000 deductible, updated 27 May 2026
- North Carolina homeowners insurance · NerdWallet · retrieved Supports: An average Raleigh premium of $2,420 a year and a North Carolina average of $3,025, for $400,000 of dwelling cover
- Renters insurance in North Carolina · NerdWallet · retrieved Supports: An average Raleigh renters premium of $160 a year for $30,000 of personal property
- Monthly homeowners' or condominium association fee, table B25143, 2024 American Community Survey 1-year estimates, Raleigh city · United States Census Bureau · retrieved Supports: A median monthly association fee of $114 among Raleigh owner-occupied units that pay one, 58,527 of 108,529 owner-occupied units, or 53.9%, paying such a fee, from table B25142
- Homebuyer assistance · City of Raleigh Housing and Neighborhoods · retrieved Supports: 0% deferred loans for first-time buyers at or below 80% of area median income, Up to $45,000 citywide on a home priced up to $389,500, and up to $60,000 in designated areas on a home up to $450,000
- Conforming loan limit values for 2026 · Federal Housing Finance Agency · retrieved Supports: A baseline one-unit conforming loan limit of $832,750 for 2026, which is the limit in Wake County
- Annual estimates of the resident population for incorporated places, 2020 to 2025 · United States Census Bureau, Population Estimates Program · retrieved Supports: A population of 506,306 for Raleigh on 1 July 2025, against 467,665 at the 2020 census
- 2025 Gazetteer files: places, North Carolina · United States Census Bureau · retrieved Supports: A land area of 152.263 square miles for Raleigh city, against 147.116 in the 2020 file
- NTREIS monthly MLS summary report, August 2026 · North Texas Real Estate Information System and the Texas Real Estate Research Center at Texas A&M University, via the MetroTex Association of REALTORS · retrieved Supports: A median single-family sale price of $469,900 in the City of Dallas in August 2026 on 640 sales, against $499,900 on 667 sales in August 2025, A median townhouse sale price of $543,000 on 30 sales, against $475,000 on 42, and a median condominium sale price of $310,000 on 121 sales, against $237,000 on 136, 2,725 active single-family listings and 4.2 months of inventory in the City of Dallas, A median single-family lease of $2,850 a month on 276 leases, City figures by property type only, with no all-types median
- Housing market reports · MetroTex Association of REALTORS · retrieved Supports: Monthly reports featuring data from the Texas A&M Real Estate Research Center, based on listings of properties physically located within the specified geographic areas
- Dallas, TX average rent and rent trends · RentCafe / Yardi Matrix · retrieved Supports: An average Dallas apartment rent of $1,592, down 0.92% from $1,607 a year earlier, updated 31 August 2026, Average rents of $1,245 studio, $1,416 one-bedroom, $1,853 two-bedroom and $2,221 three-bedroom
- 2025 ad valorem tax rates for Dallas County, revised 5 November 2025 · Dallas Central Appraisal District · retrieved Supports: 2025 rates per $100: Dallas County 0.215500, Parkland Hospital 0.212000, Dallas College 0.106575, Dallas 0.698800, Dallas ISD 0.993835, Optional homestead exemptions of 20% for Dallas County, Parkland Hospital, Dallas College and the City of Dallas, and 10% for Dallas ISD, A general homestead exemption of $140,000 for every school district, contingent on the November 2025 constitutional amendment, A calculated local optional homestead value of not less than $5,000, Separate rates and exemptions for Highland Park, University Park, Cockrell Hill and Highland Park ISD
- 2026 estimated ad valorem tax rates for Dallas County, revised 4 March 2026 · Dallas Central Appraisal District · retrieved Supports: The 2026 table was an estimate, repeating the 2025 rates for the five units, when these figures were retrieved
- 2025 and 2026 residence homestead average and median values · Dallas Central Appraisal District · retrieved Supports: A certified median residence homestead market value of $364,530 in the City of Dallas for 2025, on 177,599 homesteads, A certified median of $364,000 for 2026, on 172,862 homesteads, in the table dated 22 July 2026
- Annual report, 2025 appraisal year · Dallas Central Appraisal District · retrieved Supports: 230,276 protests received for the 2025 appraisal year, 180,733 of them residential, and 788,553 appraisal notices mailed, A protest process that begins around 15 April and concludes by 20 July each year
- Valuing property: the homestead cap and the circuit breaker limitation · Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts · retrieved Supports: A residence homestead's appraised value may not rise more than 10% a year, from the year after the owner first qualifies, A 20% annual limit on the appraised value of non-homestead property valued at $5 million or less, the circuit breaker, which expires on 31 December 2026
- Tax Code, Section 41.44: notice of protest · Texas Legislature · retrieved Supports: A protest must be filed by 15 May or the 30th day after the appraisal notice is delivered, whichever is later
- Midtown Improvement District · City of Dallas Office of Economic Development · retrieved Supports: The Midtown Improvement District, formerly the Vickery Meadow Public Improvement District, established in 1993 and renewed to 31 December 2032, An annual budget and assessment rate subject to a public hearing and Dallas City Council approval
- Public Improvement Districts (PIDs) layer · City of Dallas · retrieved Supports: Public improvement districts mapped by the City including Dallas DID, Uptown, Deep Ellum, Klyde Warren/DAD, Knox Street, Oak Lawn-Hi Line, Prestonwood, Lake Highlands, North Lake Highlands, Midtown, University Crossing, South Side, Far East Dallas and RedBird
- Texas homeowners insurance market overview · Texas Department of Insurance · retrieved Supports: A statewide average homeowners premium of $3,489 a year for 2025, from the Texas Statistical Plan for Residential Risks, Hail as the largest cause of paid homeowners losses, $4.93 billion in 2024 against $2.21 billion for wind
- Insurance and your roof: what to know when buying a policy or filing a claim · Texas Department of Insurance · retrieved Supports: Replacement cost coverage pays for a new roof at current prices, and actual cash value coverage pays replacement cost minus depreciation, As roofs age, some companies will switch to actual cash value, A deductible for wind and hail damage can differ from the deductible for other damage
- Texas homeowners insurance · NerdWallet · retrieved Supports: An average Dallas premium of $6,915 a year and a Texas average of $5,910, for $500,000 of dwelling cover, updated 20 February 2026
- How much is homeowners insurance in Dallas, TX? · Insure.com · retrieved Supports: An average Dallas premium of $4,212 a year for $300,000 of dwelling cover, $100,000 of liability and a $1,000 deductible, updated 27 May 2026
- Renters insurance in Texas · NerdWallet · retrieved Supports: An average Dallas renters premium of $167 a year for $30,000 of personal property, updated 23 September 2026
- Monthly homeowners' or condominium association fee, table B25143, 2024 American Community Survey 1-year estimates, Dallas city · United States Census Bureau · retrieved Supports: A median monthly association fee of $280 among Dallas owner-occupied units that pay one, 50,335 of 226,859 owner-occupied units, or 22.2%, paying such a fee, from table B25142
- City of Dallas utility fees effective 1 October 2025 · City of Dallas · retrieved Supports: A residential sanitation fee of $40.09 a month, $43.40 with tax, A residential stormwater fee of $5.39 to $21.01 a month by impervious area, An environmental cleanup fee of $3.00 a month on every City of Dallas utility account
- Dallas Homebuyer Assistance Program (DHAP) · City of Dallas Housing and Homelessness Solutions · retrieved Supports: Assistance of up to $60,000 in High Opportunity Areas and $50,000 elsewhere in Dallas, for households at or below 80% of area median income, A maximum sales price of $342,000 for existing and newly built homes, for contracts from 1 September 2024, A second lien as an interest-free forgivable deferred loan with no monthly payments, prorated annually, with partial repayment due on a sale, lease or transfer, Administered by Business and Community Lenders of Texas from 1 May 2026
- 2025 Gazetteer files: places, Texas · United States Census Bureau · retrieved Supports: A land area of 339.685 square miles and a water area of 43.966 square miles for Dallas city