Raleigh vs Fort Worth: which should you move to?
Raleigh or Fort Worth? 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
Fort Worth
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, though the prices are different measures: Raleigh's is Zillow's typical home value for the city, Fort Worth's the NTREIS median single-family sale inside the city. Mortgage, property tax and insurance come to about $2,808 a month on Raleigh's $428,671 and $2,516 on Fort Worth's $327,000, and about $2,298 on Zillow's index for Fort Worth, which stood at $295,800. Against local pay the two are close: Raleigh's $2,808 is roughly 40% of its median household income of $85,060, and Fort Worth's $2,516 about 37% of $82,503. Fort Worth's property tax takes back part of the difference in price, $5,044 a year against $3,717, and North Carolina's income tax takes more, $3,708 on $100,000 for 2025. On the same FBI counts crime splits: Fort Worth has the slightly lower violent and property rates, 375 and 2,226 per 100,000 against 396 and 2,316, and Raleigh the lower homicide rate, about 4.9 per 100,000 against 7.6. Choose Raleigh for Medicaid expansion, the tighter job market, the lower homicide rate and a milder summer. Choose Fort Worth for the cheaper house, no state income tax, aerospace, airlines and freight, and a hub airport.
| Measure | Raleigh | Fort Worth | Advantage |
|---|---|---|---|
| City population | 506,306 (2025) | 1,028,117 (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) | 11.9% (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 | Fort Worth | 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) | $327,000 (August 2026) | Fort Worth |
| Detached house benchmark Fort Worth publishes a single house index rather than a composite, so the two rows repeat. | $440,555 | $327,000 | Fort Worth |
| Apartment or condominium benchmark | $270,056 | $330,000 | Raleigh |
| Two-bedroom rent | $1,655/mo (average, August 2026) | $1,317/mo (median, September 2026) | Fort Worth |
| One-bedroom rent | $1,409/mo | $1,141/mo | Fort Worth |
| 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 | 19.2% of a year's income | Fort Worth |
| Mortgage payment on the benchmark, 20% down 30-year amortization on American monthly compounding, the convention in both. | $2,288/mo at 7.03% | $1,746/mo at 7.03% | Fort Worth |
| 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× | 4.0× | Fort Worth |
| 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) | $5,046/yr (1.543%, 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 | Fort Worth |
| 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. Fort Worth: About 1.54% of value for a homesteaded owner, worked out on the $327,000 median single-family sale price. A house in the City of Fort Worth and Fort Worth ISD, the school district more of the city's residents live in than any other, is taxed by six units for 2025, which add to 2.18908 per $100 before any exemption. Each takes its own homestead exemption off the appraised value first, except one: Fort Worth ISD takes the state's $140,000 and nothing more, Tarrant County College 1% with the state's $5,000 floor, Tarrant County, the City and JPS Health Network 20% each, and the Tarrant Regional Water District, which pays for the Fort Worth Floodway, none at all. So Tarrant County levies 0.1862 per $100 on $261,600 after an exemption of $65,400, $487; City of Fort Worth levies 0.67 per $100 on $261,600 after an exemption of $65,400, $1,753; Fort Worth ISD levies 1.0291 per $100 on $187,000 after an exemption of $140,000, $1,924; Tarrant County College levies 0.11228 per $100 on $322,000 after an exemption of $5,000, $362; JPS Health Network levies 0.165 per $100 on $261,600 after an exemption of $65,400, $432; Tarrant Regional Water District levies 0.0265 per $100 on the full $327,000, with no homestead exemption, $87. The six come to $5,044 a year, 1.54% of the price. Without a homestead, as a landlord or a buyer who never files, the same house owes $7,158. In Keller ISD, the district the second most residents live in, the school line is 1.0852 per $100 after the same $140,000, and the same house comes to $5,149, 1.57%. On $295,800, Zillow's August 2026 value for a typical Fort Worth home, the Fort Worth ISD stack comes to $4,425, 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 City has since adopted 0.70565 for 2026, but when these figures were retrieved the Tarrant County Tax Assessor-Collector's table and the appraisal district's still ran to 2025, so the calculators stay on 2025 until all six 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 | Fort Worth | 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) | 375 (2025) | Fort Worth |
| Property crime per 100,000 | 2,316 (2025) | 2,226 (2025) | Fort Worth |
| 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) | 78 (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 Fort Worth went from 5,428 in 2021 to 4,876 in 2022, 4,849 in 2023, 4,641 in 2024 and 3,859 in 2025, a 17% drop in the last year and 29% in four, and property offenses from 25,186 to 26,275, 26,098 and a peak of 27,290 in 2024, then 22,886, 16% below it. Motor vehicle theft rose from 3,687 in 2021 to 5,157 in 2024 and fell to 3,616 in 2025, down 30%. In 2025 the CDE shows aggravated assaults down 18% (3,230 to 2,656), rapes down 18% (613 to 505), robberies down 15% (726 to 620), burglaries down 16% and larcenies down 12%, while murders rose 8% (72 to 78), the one violent measure that went up. Eddie Garcia, Dallas's former police chief, took over the department in September 2025 after months without a permanent chief, and FWPD's own figures for January through August 2026 against the same months of 2025 show robberies down from 436 to 269 and aggravated assaults from 1,842 to 1,557 as well as the drop in murders (WFAA). The 2025 CDE counts were read on 30 September 2026 from a feed last refreshed on 15 September and can still be revised.
What the rates cover: Computed: 3,859 violent offenses (murder, rape, robbery and aggravated assault) in the FBI Crime Data Explorer's summarized data for the Fort Worth Police Department (ORI TX2201200) in calendar 2025, divided by the 1,028,117 Vintage 2025 city population. On the CDE's own agency population of 1,030,410 the rate is also 375. That is the lowest of the Texas cities this site compares, against 532 in San Antonio, 577 in Dallas and 890 in Houston. No FWPD total on this definition was found in anything fetched; the city's quarterly crime reports, as the Fort Worth Star-Telegram described them, count crimes against persons, a broader group that includes assaults and sex offenses, and put them 12% lower in the first half of 2025 than a year earlier.
Homicides: 78 murders and nonnegligent manslaughters in 2025 in the FBI CDE, against 72 in 2024, about 7.6 per 100,000 on the city population. Spectrum News, reading city data in February 2026, also put the year's homicides 8% above 2024. Most of the rise came early: the city's quarterly reports counted 20 homicides in January through March 2025 against 9 a year earlier and 43 in the first half against 31 (Fort Worth Star-Telegram). The CDE series has fallen from 118 in 2021, and 2026 has turned the other way: FWPD counted 36 murders through 31 August against 54 in the same months of 2025 (WFAA).
Winters, summers and what the weather can do to a house
| Measure | Raleigh | Fort Worth | Advantage |
|---|---|---|---|
| January mean | 5.5 °C | 7.7 °C | Not directly comparable |
| July mean | 26.9 °C | 29.5 °C | Not directly comparable |
| Precipitation a year | 1,170 mm | 898 mm | Not directly comparable |
| Snowfall a year | 13 cm | 4 cm | Not directly comparable |
| Sunshine a year | 2,606 hours | 2,850 hours | Fort Worth |
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 Fort Worth Meacham International Airport (station USW00013961), the city-owned general aviation field inside the city about 5 miles north-northwest of downtown: January mean 45.8F, July mean 85.1F, annual mean 65.9F, 35.34 in of precipitation. Meacham's normals carry no snowfall, so the 1.6 in of snow stored here is the normal at Dallas Fort Worth International Airport (USW00003927), about 20 miles northeast of downtown, where the National Weather Service keeps the metro's official record. August is the warmest month by a tenth of a degree at 85.2F, with a mean high of 95.9F; July's mean high is 95.7F and January's mean low is 35.3F. October (4.46 in) is the wettest month, then May and June (4.02 in each), and January (2.05 in) the driest. The normals count 105.5 days a year at 90F or above, 24.1 at 100F or above and 32.8 nights at or below freezing. DFW Airport averages 46.3F in January and 85.7F in July with 37.01 in of rain, 20.3 days at 100F or above and 29.2 nights at or below freezing. Converted here to 7.7 C, 29.5 C, 898 mm and 4.1 cm. Those 24.1 days at 100F are more than Love Field's 22.4 for Dallas and fewer only than Austin's 28.7 among the Texas cities this site compares, although the July mean is 1.2 C below Dallas's. Sunshine hours are the older 1961-1990 NCDC means that Current Results lists for Dallas (2,850 hours, 61% of possible, and 135 clear days); it lists no separate Fort Worth figure, and the 1991-2020 normals do not include sunshine.
Hazards: Hail is the costly routine hazard. On the evening of 5 May 1995 a supercell dropped hail up to softball size on Mayfest, the outdoor festival on the bank of the Trinity River, where more than 10,000 people were caught in the open: more than 400 were hurt and 60 seriously enough to be hospitalized, though no one died at the festival. The storms went on to kill one driver in a swollen creek in western Tarrant County and 19 people in Dallas County, most of them in floodwater, and the National Weather Service puts the damage at about $2 billion, one of the costliest hailstorms in history. Cotality counted more than 235,000 Texas homes hit by damaging hail in 2025, far more than in any other state, with the risk concentrated in Dallas-Fort Worth and the other Texas Triangle metros. Tornadoes have hit the center of the city. At 6:18 pm on 28 March 2000 a tornado touched down near Castleberry High School, about 4 miles west of downtown, and tracked east along West 7th Street, nearly destroying the Cash America building and heavily damaging Mallick Tower before it weakened over downtown, where debris broke 80% of the windows in the Bank One building and 1,300 of the 5,000 in the Union Pacific Resources building. Two people died and about 80 were injured, 6 of them hospitalized; the Texas Tech damage survey rated it F2. A second tornado later that evening did F3 damage in Arlington and Grand Prairie without a death, and NOAA counts the storms of 28 and 29 March across the South at $690 million ($1.27 billion in 2024 dollars). Flooding shaped the city's form. In May 1949 a night of 6 to 12 in of rain overflowed the Trinity, killing 10 people and leaving more than 13,000 homeless, and the Army Corps of Engineers later built the 27 miles of levees of the Fort Worth Floodway, which the Tarrant Regional Water District maintains. The Corps' $1.16 billion Central City project, known locally as Panther Island, is to carry the river around downtown through new bypass channels and protect more than 2,400 acres; work on the northern half of the channel is due to begin late in 2026 and the project to be finished in 2032. Flash floods on the creeks are the more frequent danger: on 21 and 22 August 2022, 9.56 in (243 mm) fell at Meacham over the two days, 5.11 in (130 mm) of it on the 22nd, and the National Weather Service measured 8.41 in in Fort Worth, with flooding reported from Como and the John T. White neighborhood to West 7th Street; the city's 2016 floodplain plan counted more than $1 billion of stormwater improvements needed. Heat is the constant. The normals give Meacham 24.1 days a year at or above 100F (37.8 C). The summer of 2026 has been among its hottest: 55 days at 100F or above through 27 September, fourth in its record after 72 in 2011, 64 in 2023 and 62 in 1998, and 31 in a row from 3 August to 2 September, the longest run it has recorded; its highest reading is 112F (44.4 C), on 12 July 1998 and 4 September 2000. At DFW Airport the National Weather Service counts 52 days of 100F in 2026 through 22 September, tied for fifth, against the record of 71 in 2011. Cold is rare and badly handled. Winter Storm Uri took Meacham to -2F (-18.9 C) on 16 February 2021, tying 31 January 1949 for the lowest in its record, and DFW Airport also fell to -2F, the lowest there since 1953, with 5.0 in (12.7 cm) of snow over the storm. 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, 11 of them in Tarrant County. In January 2026 Winter Storm Fern brought 2.4 in (6.1 cm) of snow and sleet to DFW Airport and a low of 11F (-11.7 C) at Meacham on the 25th.
What people earn and what the government takes
| Measure | Raleigh | Fort Worth | Advantage |
|---|---|---|---|
| Median household income | $85,060 USD (2024) | $82,503 USD (2024) | Raleigh |
| Unemployment rate | 3.1% (July 2026) | 4.6% (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% | Fort Worth |
| 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 | Fort Worth |
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 1,222,100 nonfarm jobs in the Fort Worth-Arlington-Grapevine Metropolitan Division in August 2026 (not seasonally adjusted, preliminary), up 17,800 or 1.5% on the year. Professional and business services grew fastest (+5.0%, to 159,300), then mining, logging and construction (+4.8%, to 92,100), leisure and hospitality (+4.4%, to 145,500) and transportation and warehousing (+2.1%, to 102,600), while financial activities (-2.0%), information (-1.8%) and government (-0.6%, to 136,000) shrank; federal employment fell 9.0%, from 16,700 to 15,200. Manufacturing held at 110,000, of which aerospace product and parts manufacturing was 23,600, up 1.3%. The seasonally adjusted series (SMS48231040000000001) was 1,223,400 in August 2026, 1.5% above August 2025. The Texas Comptroller credits Lockheed Martin with about 49,000 direct and indirect workers in Fort Worth and a $9 billion regional impact, and 25,579 direct employees across Texas, and counts 4,553 direct and 21,266 total jobs and $2.75 billion of state GDP for Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base Fort Worth in 2025. Hillwood's annual report puts AllianceTexas's economic impact at $12.9 billion in 2025 and $142.9 billion since it opened in 1989, and Hillwood says the Comptroller has recognized it as the primary inland port for the southwestern United States. American Airlines, with 103,440 staff in 2024, and BNSF Railway, with about 36,000, are both headquartered in the city (Wikipedia).
Main sectors: Aerospace and defense (Lockheed Martin Aeronautics, which builds the F-35 at Air Force Plant 4; Bell Textron, headquartered in the city; Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base Fort Worth, the former Carswell Air Force Base), Airlines and freight rail (American Airlines, headquartered in the city, with its largest hub at DFW Airport; BNSF Railway, headquartered in the city), Logistics and advanced manufacturing at AllianceTexas in far north Fort Worth, which Hillwood says holds 602 companies and 73,134 jobs, Trade, transportation and utilities, the division's largest sector by payroll jobs (289,300 in August 2026), Health care and education (JPS Health Network, Cook Children's Medical Center, Texas Christian University and its medical school).
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. On 15 September 2026 the City Council adopted a $3.33 billion operating budget for fiscal 2027 unanimously and raised the city's rate by 3.565 cents to 70.565 cents per $100 of taxable value on a 7 to 4 vote, to help close a $94 million shortfall. The city says the average homeowner's bill will still fall, by $8.19 to $1,643.64 on a home valued at $232,925, because the Tarrant Appraisal District has not reappraised residential property since 2024 and the average value dropped; the city's total taxable value rose only 0.89%, to $130.2 billion (Fort Worth Report, Community Impact, CBS Texas). The budget also raises stormwater, water, sewer, solid waste and environmental fees by about $7 a month for the average resident. The county, school district, JPS hospital district, Tarrant County College and other levies on the same bill belong to the housing layer.
Whether you need a car
| Measure | Raleigh | Fort Worth | 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 | Trinity Metro buses (147 fixed-route and 76 demand-response vehicles), the 27.2-mile TEXRail commuter line with 9 stations from T&P Station downtown through North Richland Hills and Grapevine to DFW Airport Terminal B (opened January 2019), the Trinity Railway Express to Dallas run with DART, ZIPZONE on-demand zones and the downtown Blue Line circulator; Fort Worth is the only full member, with Forest Hill, Grapevine, North Richland Hills and River Oaks partial members | Not directly comparable |
| Commute by public transit | 1.7% (2024) | 0.7% (2024) | Raleigh |
| Walk or cycle to work | 1.5% (2024) | 1.1% (2024) | Raleigh |
| 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), about 20 miles northeast of downtown Fort Worth and midway between the two cities, handled 85,660,127 passengers in 2025, 2.5% fewer than 2024's 87,817,864, per the airport's December 2025 traffic report; American Airlines, headquartered in Fort Worth, carried 82.6% of them, and TEXRail runs from downtown to Terminal B. Fort Worth Meacham International Airport, owned by the city about 5 miles north-northwest of downtown, has no scheduled airline service and serves general aviation; its 1933 American Airways hangar is on the National Register of Historic Places (Wikipedia). | 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.
Trinity Metro carried 6,180,600 unlinked trips in 2025, 4,554,400 of them by bus and 906,800 on TEXRail, and about 22,100 a weekday in the second quarter of 2026, 2,800 of them on TEXRail (APTA ridership reports, as cited by Wikipedia; APTA's PDFs refused the fetcher), against 30.7 million for VIA in San Antonio, 52.8 million for DART and 78.0 million for Houston's METRO. The Trinity Railway Express, which Trinity Metro runs with DART between downtown Fort Worth and downtown Dallas, carried 1,337,600 trips in 2025 (APTA, same source). The system is paid for by a half-cent sales tax Fort Worth has levied since 1984, half what DART's and METRO's cities pay. TEXRail runs every 30 minutes until 7 pm and hourly after, and a 2.1-mile extension to the Medical District on the Near Southside, estimated at about $167 million, is due to break ground by the end of 2026 and open in 2029 (Wikipedia).
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). 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 Fort Worth's rate was 18.9% (189,692 of 1,003,516), Tarrant County's 16.9% and the metro's 16.2%. JPS Health Network, the Tarrant County Hospital District, runs John Peter Smith Hospital, the county's public hospital, a Level I trauma center and the only psychiatric emergency site in the county; on 16 April 2026 it broke ground on a $1.5 billion replacement hospital at South Main and East Morphy streets, part of a $2.5 billion building plan backed by an $800 million bond from 2018, which will take it from 582 beds to more than 740 when it opens in 2030 (Fort Worth Report). Cook Children's Medical Center has 452 licensed beds and a Level II pediatric trauma center (Wikipedia). TCU's Anne Burnett Marion School of Medicine took its first class in 2019. This file did not verify a wait time figure for primary or specialist care.
Education
Fort Worth is served by Fort Worth ISD and, in parts, by fourteen other districts, among them Keller, Northwest, Eagle Mountain-Saginaw, Crowley and Arlington (the 2020 Census school district map, as cited by Wikipedia). Fort Worth ISD is now under state control: after a campus received a fifth straight failing rating, Education Commissioner Mike Morath decided in October 2025 to intervene, and on 24 March 2026 he replaced the elected trustees' authority with a nine-member board of managers led by Pete Geren and named Peter Licata, formerly of Broward County, superintendent. It is the second-largest takeover in Texas history, after Houston ISD's. The board opened by saying roughly 63% of students do not read at grade level and 29% are proficient in math (Fort Worth Report). The district, built for 90,000 students, had 67,315 in 2025-26 on Texas Education Agency data and projected about 66,500 for 2026-27; it has lost more than 12,000 in five years and in May 2025 approved closing 18 campuses by June 2029 (CBS Texas). Texas Christian University (12,980 students in fall 2025) is about 4 miles from downtown, and the city also holds Texas Wesleyan University, UNT Health Fort Worth and Texas A&M University's law school and downtown campus.
Living there
Fort Worth has grown faster than any other US city of a million people: 11.9% since 2020, and 19,512 residents in 2024-25, a gain second only to Charlotte's; it passed a million in 2024. It is the western half of the Dallas-Fort Worth metro and works differently from Dallas: its economy leans on aircraft, airlines and freight, from the F-35 line at Lockheed Martin's plant and Bell's helicopters to the headquarters of American Airlines and BNSF and the warehouses and factories of AllianceTexas, and household income, at $82,503, is higher than in Dallas, Houston or San Antonio. It is built for the car: 74.9% of workers drive alone and 0.7% take transit, the lowest share of any city this site compares, though TEXRail runs to DFW Airport. Violent crime, at 375 per 100,000 on the FBI's counts, is the lowest of the Texas cities here. Summer is long and hot, with 24 days a year at 100F or above and 31 in a row in 2026, and hail and tornadoes are the costly weather. Texas takes no income tax, and 18.9% of residents have no health insurance. The open questions are the costs of growth: the council raised its property tax rate in September 2026 to cover a $94 million gap as appraisals stalled, the state took over the shrinking Fort Worth ISD in March 2026, and the Panther Island flood channels around downtown are not due until 2032.
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. The prices are different measures. Raleigh's is Zillow's typical home value for the city, $428,671 in August 2026 and 1.7% below a year earlier. Fort Worth's is the North Texas Real Estate Information System's median of single-family houses sold inside the city, $327,000 in August, 0.9% below, on 805 sales. On Zillow's index, the same measure in both, the City of Fort Worth stood at $295,800, 1.8% below a year earlier. At 20% down, Raleigh's $342,937 loan costs about $2,288 a month and Fort Worth's $261,600 loan about $1,746. Property tax is about $3,717 a year in Raleigh, 0.867% of value, against $5,044 in Fort Worth with a homestead, an effective 1.54%, and insurance is budgeted at $210 a month against $350, the Fort Worth figure an estimate between published averages of $4,290 and $5,600 a year and raised by North Texas hail, with no flood policy in it. The three lines come to about $2,808 and $2,516, roughly 40% and 37% of each city's 2024 median household income. Of the $292 gap, Raleigh's mortgage is about $543 higher, and Fort Worth's property tax $111 and insurance $140 higher. On Zillow's value for both, Fort Worth's carry would be about $2,298, 33% of its median income. Rents are on different series, RentCafe's August averages for Raleigh and Apartment List's September medians for Fort Worth: a one-bedroom at $1,409 against $1,141, a two-bedroom $1,655 against $1,317. Zillow's observed rent index, the same measure in both, runs the other way, $1,577 in Raleigh and $1,615 in Fort Worth in August.
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 on 26 and 30 September 2026. The two are close, and they split. Fort Worth's 3,859 violent offenses come to 375 per 100,000 and Raleigh's 2,007 to 396, and property offenses to 2,226 against 2,316. Homicide is where they part: 78 in Fort Worth, about 7.6 per 100,000, against 25 in Raleigh, about 4.9, and Fort Worth's was the one violent measure that rose in 2025, from 72. Neither department's own total replaces the FBI's. Raleigh's violent crime total counts simple assaults and runs far above the federal figure, and Fort Worth's quarterly reports count crimes against persons, a broader group; FWPD's own murder count for January through August 2026 was 36, against 54 in the same months of 2025. Both are improving at the same pace. Violent offenses dropped 16% in Raleigh in 2025, from 2,399, and 17% in Fort Worth, from 4,641, 29% in four years. Motor vehicle theft fell in both: Raleigh's police counted a 32% drop in 2025, and Fort Worth's federal count went from 5,157 to 3,616, down 30%. Both sets of counts can still be revised.
Fort Worth is the hotter in summer and a little milder in winter, and much drier. July averages 29.5 C at Meacham against 26.9 C at Raleigh-Durham International, and January 7.7 C against 5.5 C. Fort Worth's normals count 105.5 days a year at 90F or above, 24.1 at or above 37.8 C (100F) and 32.8 nights at or below freezing, and in 2026 Meacham had 55 days of 100F through 27 September, 31 of them in a row. Fort Worth gets 898 mm of rain against 1,170 mm and 4.1 cm of snow, DFW Airport's figure, against 13.2 cm; the sunshine figure for Fort Worth, 2,850 hours on the older 1961-1990 series, is Dallas's, against 2,606 for Raleigh. The storms differ. Raleigh's worst was Hurricane Fran, which in September 1996 dropped 8.80 in (224 mm) at RDU and did about $900 million of damage in Raleigh and Wake County, and its record storm is snow, 20.3 in (52 cm) in January 2000. Fort Worth's costly routine hazard is hail: the Mayfest storm of 5 May 1995 dropped hail up to softball size on more than 10,000 people at a festival by the Trinity, hurting more than 400, and did about $2 billion of damage across Tarrant and Dallas counties. A tornado on 28 March 2000 tracked along West 7th Street into downtown and killed two, and its creeks flood, 9.56 in (243 mm) at Meacham over two days in August 2022. Its cold is rare and badly handled: Winter Storm Uri took Meacham to -2F (-18.9 C) in February 2021 while ERCOT cut power across the state grid, and Texas counted 11 of the storm's 246 deaths in Tarrant County. Insurance prices the two at $210 a month against $350, with flood cover a separate policy in both.
Fort Worth's labor market is half again the size of Raleigh's; Raleigh's is tighter and growing a little faster. On the same unadjusted basis, unemployment in July 2026 was 3.2% around Raleigh and 4.6% in the Fort Worth-Arlington-Grapevine division, Fort Worth's half of the Dallas-Fort Worth metro, against 4.4% nationally. Raleigh's 784,100 nonfarm jobs in July were 2.1% more than a year earlier, and the Fort Worth division's 1,222,100 in August 1.5% more. Raleigh's largest sector is professional and business services at 156,200 jobs, then government, with the state capital and NC State inside it, at 107,400. The Fort Worth division's is trade, transportation and utilities at 289,300, and its work is aircraft, airlines and freight: Lockheed Martin builds the F-35 at Air Force Plant 4, with about 49,000 direct and indirect workers in the city on the Texas Comptroller's count, Bell Textron, American Airlines and BNSF Railway have their headquarters there, and AllianceTexas in the far north holds 73,134 jobs by its developer's count. Federal jobs in the division fell 9.0% on the year. Raleigh's average weekly wage was $1,621 in the first quarter of 2026, against $1,654 nationally; Fort Worth's profile carries no wage figure. City median household income was $85,060 in Raleigh and $82,503 in Fort Worth in 2024, and the metros' $102,144 and $92,733. 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 Fort Worth. Property tax runs the other way: $1,327 a year more on Fort Worth's median than on Raleigh's typical home, which North Carolina's 2025 rate matches at about $44,000 of income. Sales tax is 7.25% in Wake against 8.25%.
Neither is a transit city, and Fort Worth's transit share is the lowest of any city this site compares. In 2024, 1.7% of Raleigh workers took transit and 1.5% walked or cycled, against 0.7% and 1.1% in Fort Worth; 66.3% drove alone against 74.9%, and 21.8% of Raleigh's workers worked from home against 10.5%. GoRaleigh carried 7,991,200 trips in 2025, all of them by bus. Trinity Metro carried 6,180,600, 906,800 of them on TEXRail, the 27.2-mile commuter line from downtown Fort Worth to DFW Airport, and runs the Trinity Railway Express to Dallas with DART. Wake County's half-cent transit tax is building Raleigh's 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. Fort Worth has levied its own half-cent since 1984, and a 2.1-mile TEXRail extension to the Medical District, estimated at about $167 million, is due to break ground by the end of 2026 and open in 2029. The airports are far apart. RDU handled a record 15.6 million passengers in 2025 and also serves Durham and Chapel Hill. DFW, American's largest hub, about 20 miles northeast of downtown Fort Worth, handled 85,660,127, and American, which carried 82.6% of them, is headquartered in Fort Worth.
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 Fort Worth's was 18.9% and Tarrant County's 16.9%, 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, with Duke and UNC's academic centers in the region. Fort Worth's public hospital is JPS Health Network's John Peter Smith Hospital, Tarrant County's Level I trauma center, which broke ground on 16 April 2026 on a $1.5 billion replacement that will take it from 582 beds to more than 740 in 2030; Cook Children's Medical Center has 452 licensed beds. Neither profile verified a wait time. The schools are organized differently. The Wake County Public School System is one county-wide district, enrolled 160,413 in 2025-26, 702 fewer than a year earlier, and gives every address a base school. Fort Worth is split among Fort Worth ISD and fourteen other districts. Fort Worth ISD, built for 90,000 students, had 67,315 in 2025-26, has approved closing 18 campuses by June 2029, and since 24 March 2026 has been governed by a board of managers the state appointed after a campus failed for a fifth straight year. NC State enrolled 40,503 in fall 2025; TCU, about 4 miles from downtown Fort Worth, has 12,980.
What people underestimate is how differently the two property taxes behave, and what Fort Worth's figure leaves out. 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. Fort Worth's bill is six taxing units on a value the Tarrant Appraisal District sets, and one of them, the Tarrant Regional Water District, which pays for the Fort Worth Floodway, grants no homestead exemption. The homestead has to be filed, or the median house owes $7,158 rather than $5,044. Its 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 $5,044 is for an address inside the City of Fort Worth and Fort Worth ISD; in Keller ISD, the district the second most residents live in, the same house pays $5,149, and newer subdivisions often sit in a public improvement district, 0.155 per $100 on a house in Park Glen or $482 to $1,559 a year per lot in Walsh Ranch's first phase. The city is also growing much faster, 19,512 residents added in 2024-25, second only to Charlotte, against 7,289 in Raleigh. And the rate is moving: on 15 September 2026 the council voted 7 to 4 to raise the City's own by 3.565 cents, from 67 cents to 70.565, to help close a $94 million shortfall.
Better here
- Homicide was 25 in 2025, about 4.9 per 100,000, against 78 in Fort Worth at about 7.6, on the same FBI counts.
- Unemployment was 3.2% around Raleigh in July 2026, not seasonally adjusted, against 4.6% in the Fort Worth division, and nonfarm jobs grew 2.1% in the year to July against 1.5% in the year to August.
- 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 Fort Worth at 18.9%.
- Property tax is about $3,717 a year on the typical home for fiscal 2027, 0.867% of value, against $5,044 and an effective 1.54% on Fort Worth's median.
- July averages 26.9 C at RDU against 29.5 C at Meacham, where the normals count 24.1 days a year at or above 37.8 C (100F).
- City median household income was $85,060 in 2024 against $82,503, and the metro's $102,144 against $92,733.
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 Fort Worth.
- The typical home is $428,671 on Zillow's index, against $295,800 for the City of Fort Worth on the same index.
- Mortgage, property tax and insurance come to about $2,808 a month, against $2,516 on Fort Worth's single-family median at the same 7.03% rate.
- RDU handled a record 15.6 million passengers in 2025, against 85,660,127 at DFW, American's largest hub.
- January averages 5.5 C with 13.2 cm of snow on the 1991-2020 normals, against 7.7 C and 4.1 cm in Fort Worth.
- The metro's 784,100 nonfarm jobs are about two thirds of the Fort Worth division's 1,222,100, and average weekly wages were $1,621 in the first quarter of 2026, below the national $1,654.
Choose Raleigh if
- you want the lower homicide rate, on figures built the same way
- 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 24.1 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.
- Mortgage, property tax and insurance come to about $2,516 a month on the single-family median, and about $2,298 on Zillow's value for the city, against $2,808 in Raleigh.
- Violent crime ran 375 per 100,000 in 2025 against 396 in Raleigh, and property crime 2,226 against 2,316, on the same FBI counts.
- DFW, American's largest hub, handled 85,660,127 passengers in 2025, more than five times RDU's 15.6 million, and TEXRail runs to it from downtown.
- The city added 19,512 residents in 2024-25, the second-largest gain of any US city, against 7,289 in Raleigh.
- The Fort Worth division had 1,222,100 nonfarm jobs in August 2026, half again Raleigh-Cary's 784,100, with Lockheed Martin, Bell Textron, American Airlines and BNSF Railway in the city.
Worse here
- There were 78 homicides in 2025, about 7.6 per 100,000, up from 72, against 25 and about 4.9 in Raleigh.
- Texas had the highest uninsured rate of any state in 2024, 16.7%, the City of Fort Worth's was 18.9%, and Texas is one of ten states that have not expanded Medicaid.
- The six taxing units take $5,044 a year on the median with a homestead, an effective 1.54%, and $7,158 without one, against about $3,717 in Raleigh.
- The normals count 24.1 days a year at or above 37.8 C (100F) at Meacham, and 2026 had 31 of them in a row.
- In 2024, 0.7% of workers took transit, the lowest share of any city this site compares, against 1.7% in Raleigh.
- Fort Worth ISD has been run by a state-appointed board since 24 March 2026 and has approved closing 18 campuses by June 2029.
Choose Fort Worth if
- you work in aerospace, defense manufacturing, airlines, freight rail or logistics
- you rent, or own and earn more than about $44,000, the point where North Carolina's 2025 rate outweighs Fort Worth's extra property tax on the two figures
- you want to own at about $2,516 a month rather than $2,808
- you fly often and want a hub airport reached by train from downtown
The Fort Worth guide · Neighborhoods · Fort Worth rent vs buy · Fort Worth mortgage calculator
Raleigh or Fort Worth, in short
Is Raleigh or Fort Worth cheaper to live in?
Fort Worth, in dollars, and by a little against local pay. 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, though the prices are different measures. Raleigh's typical home on Zillow's index was $428,671 in August 2026 and the NTREIS single-family median inside Fort Worth $327,000; on Zillow's index the City of Fort Worth stood at $295,800. At 20% down the mortgage is about $2,288 against $1,746. Property tax is about $3,717 a year against $5,044 and insurance $210 a month against $350, so the three lines come to about $2,808 in Raleigh and $2,516 in Fort Worth, roughly 40% and 37% of each city's median household income, $85,060 and $82,503. On Zillow's value for both, Fort Worth's would be about $2,298, 33%. Renting is close: Zillow's observed rent index was $1,577 in Raleigh and $1,615 in Fort Worth in August. 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 Fort Worth safer?
It splits, on figures built the same way. Both are the FBI's summarized counts for 2025 divided by Census estimates. Violent offenses ran 375 per 100,000 in Fort Worth against 396 in Raleigh, and property offenses 2,226 against 2,316, both close. Homicide was where they differ: 25 in Raleigh, about 4.9 per 100,000, and 78 in Fort Worth, about 7.6, up from 72 in 2024. Both improved in 2025, with violent offenses dropping 16% in Raleigh and 17% in Fort Worth. Both police departments' own totals count broader groups of offenses, so neither is used. The counts were read on 26 and 30 September 2026 and can still be revised.
Which has the better job market, Raleigh or Fort Worth?
Raleigh's is tighter and growing a little faster; Fort Worth's is half again the size and part of a much larger metro. On the same unadjusted basis unemployment was 3.2% around Raleigh and 4.6% in the Fort Worth-Arlington-Grapevine division in July 2026, against 4.4% nationally, and nonfarm jobs grew 2.1% to 784,100 in Raleigh in July and 1.5% to 1,222,100 in the Fort Worth division in August. Raleigh's work is professional services, state government and NC State, with Research Triangle Park, Duke and UNC in the region. Fort Worth's is aircraft, airlines and freight: Lockheed Martin's F-35 line, Bell Textron, and the headquarters of American Airlines and BNSF Railway, with AllianceTexas's warehouses and factories in the far north; its federal jobs fell 9.0% on the year. City median household incomes were $85,060 and $82,503 in 2024, and the metros' $102,144 and $92,733.
Does Texas having no income tax make Fort Worth cheaper than Raleigh?
For most people with a salary, yes, though Fort Worth's property tax takes back part of the difference. 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 Fort Worth, and North Carolina's flat rate drops from 4.25% to 3.99% for 2026. Texas collects through property instead. Fort Worth's six taxing units take $5,044 a year on the median with a homestead, an effective 1.54%, against about $3,717 on Raleigh's typical home, 0.867%, a difference of $1,327 a year, which North Carolina's 2025 rate passes at about $44,000 of income. Sales tax is 8.25% in Fort Worth against 7.25% in Wake, which takes back part of the gap from a household that spends most of what it earns. Both bills can move: Wake revalues on 1 January 2027, Fort Worth's city rate rises for 2026, and a Fort Worth 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
- Annual Estimates of the Resident Population for Incorporated Places of 50,000 or More (all states, SUB-EST2025) · US Census Bureau · retrieved Supports: City population, Five-year growth, Character
- Crime Data Explorer summarized agency data, Fort Worth Police Department (TX2201200): 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, Character
- Dallas sees drop in violent crime while Fort Worth sees increase in homicides · Spectrum News · retrieved Supports: Homicides, Crime trend
- After 'puzzling' spike in homicides, Fort Worth leaders look to new police chief · Fort Worth Star-Telegram (via Yahoo News) · retrieved Supports: Violent crime rate, Homicides
- Eddie Garcia marks one year as Fort Worth police chief, shares reasons behind city's drop in violent crime · WFAA (via Yahoo News) · retrieved Supports: Homicides, Crime trend
- US Climate Normals 1991-2020, station USW00013961 Fort Worth Meacham International Airport (Access Data Service) · NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information · retrieved Supports: January mean, July mean, Annual precipitation, Climate normals, Climate hazards, Character, January 45.8F, July 85.1F and August 85.2F from the monthly series, which carries no snowfall normal for this station, and annual mean 65.9F, precipitation 35.34 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: Annual snowfall, Climate normals, 1.6 in of snow, January 46.3F, July 85.7F, 37.01 in of precipitation, 20.3 days at 100F and 29.2 nights at freezing, the last three from dataset=normals-annualseasonal-1991-2020
- Global Historical Climatology Network daily summaries, Fort Worth Meacham International Airport (USW00013961), 1946-1953 and 1992-2026 · NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information · retrieved Supports: Climate hazards, Character, 55 days at or above 100F in 2026 through 27 September, 72 in 2011, 64 in 2023 and 62 in 1998, 31 in a row from 3 August to 2 September 2026, 112F on 12 July 1998 and 4 September 2000, -2F on 16 February 2021 and 31 January 1949, 4.45 in on 21 August 2022 and 5.11 in on 22 August 2022, 11F 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, -2F on 16 February 2021, 5.0 in of snow on 14 and 17 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
- Mayfest Hailstorm, May 5, 1995 · 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
- March 28, 2000: 10th Anniversary, a review of the March 28, 2000 tornadoes affecting Fort Worth and Arlington (from NWS Storm Data) · National Weather Service, Fort Worth/Dallas · retrieved Supports: Climate hazards
- Damage Survey and Assessment of Fort Worth Tornado, 28 March 2000 · Texas Tech University Wind Science and Engineering Research Center · retrieved Supports: Climate hazards
- 2000 Fort Worth tornado outbreak · Wikipedia · 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
- Flood Protection · Tarrant Regional Water District · retrieved Supports: Climate hazards
- Panther Island bypass project moves forward after Trinity River dams, flood storage delays · Fort Worth Report · retrieved Supports: Climate hazards, Character
- 'Boom, here we're hit with it again.' How historic rains flooded homes and neighborhoods across Tarrant County · Fort Worth Report · 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
- ACS 2024 1-year tables B08301 and B19013 for Fort Worth city, Tarrant County 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, Tarrant County, Fort Worth city and the Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington MSA · Census Reporter API (US Census Bureau ACS) · retrieved Supports: Health care, Character
- Local Area Unemployment Statistics, Fort Worth-Arlington-Grapevine, TX Metropolitan Division (LAUDV482310400000003), the Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington MSA (LAUMT481910000000003), Fort Worth city (LAUCT482700000000003), Tarrant County (LAUCN484390000000003) and the US rate (LNU04000000), not seasonally adjusted · US Bureau of Labor Statistics · retrieved Supports: Unemployment rate
- Current Employment Statistics, Fort Worth-Arlington-Grapevine, TX Metropolitan Division: total nonfarm (SMU48231040000000001, SMS48231040000000001), supersectors (SMU4823104xx00000001) and aerospace product and parts manufacturing (SMU48231043133640001) · US Bureau of Labor Statistics · retrieved Supports: Main sectors, Labour market
- Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base Fort Worth (Texas military installations economic impact, 2025) · Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts · retrieved Supports: Main sectors, Labour market, Character
- AllianceTexas Drives $142.9 Billion in Economic Impact for North Texas · Hillwood · retrieved Supports: Main sectors, Labour market, Character
- United States Air Force Plant 4 (Lockheed Martin Aeronautics, F-35 production) · Wikipedia · retrieved Supports: Main sectors
- American Airlines (headquarters, DFW hub, employees) · Wikipedia · retrieved Supports: Main sectors, Labour market, Airport passengers
- BNSF Railway (headquarters, employees) · Wikipedia · retrieved Supports: Main sectors, Labour market
- Bell Textron (headquarters) · Wikipedia · retrieved Supports: Main sectors
- City Sales and Use Tax (city rate table) · Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts · retrieved Supports: Sales tax
- Transit Sales and Use Tax (Fort Worth MTA, effective April 1, 1984) · Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts · retrieved Supports: Sales tax, Transit ridership
- Special Purpose District Sales and Use Tax (Fort Worth Crime Control District, effective October 1, 1995) · 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
- Fort Worth passes $4.35B budget and property tax rate increase · Community Impact · retrieved Supports: Tax notes, Character
- Slightly lower property tax bills part of Fort Worth's $3.33B budget for 2027, leaders say · CBS Texas · retrieved Supports: Tax notes
- Fort Worth proposes property tax rate bump, cost cuts to close $94M shortfall for 2027 · Fort Worth Report · retrieved Supports: Tax notes, Character
- Trinity Metro (service area, members, services, fleet, citing the APTA Transit Ridership Reports, Q4 2025 and Q2 2026) · Wikipedia · retrieved Supports: Transit system, Transit ridership
- TEXRail (length, stations, opening, frequency, ridership, Medical District extension) · Wikipedia · retrieved Supports: Transit system, Transit ridership, Airport passengers
- Template:American transit ridership (APTA Transit Ridership Reports, Q4 2025 and Q2 2026) · Wikipedia · retrieved Supports: Transit ridership
- DFW Total Passengers, December 2025 (calendar year 2025 vs 2024) · Dallas Fort Worth International Airport · retrieved Supports: Airport passengers
- Fort Worth Meacham International Airport (ownership, general aviation, history) · Wikipedia · retrieved Supports: Airport passengers, Climate normals
- Status of State Medicaid Expansion Decisions · KFF · retrieved Supports: Health care
- A new era: JPS breaks ground on $1.5B hospital · Fort Worth Report · retrieved Supports: Health care
- JPS Health Network (Tarrant County Hospital District, John Peter Smith Hospital) · Wikipedia · retrieved Supports: Health care
- Cook Children's Medical Center · Wikipedia · retrieved Supports: Health care
- Texas Education Agency Appoints Board of Managers and Names New Superintendent to Lead Fort Worth ISD · Texas Education Agency · retrieved Supports: Education
- 'We failed our kids': New Fort Worth ISD board signals urgency as state takeover begins · Fort Worth Report · retrieved Supports: Education, Character
- As enrollment drops, FWISD to shift bilingual, special ed services closer to campuses · Fort Worth Report · retrieved Supports: Education, Character
- Fort Worth ISD board gives final approval to close 18 schools amid budget woes, enrollment decline · CBS Texas · retrieved Supports: Education
- Fort Worth, Texas (school districts serving the city, citing the 2020 Census school district reference map for Tarrant County; colleges and universities) · Wikipedia · retrieved Supports: Education
- Texas Christian University (fall 2025 enrollment, location, School of Medicine) · Wikipedia · retrieved Supports: Education, Health care
- 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
- 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 $327,000 in the City of Fort Worth in August 2026 on 805 sales, against $330,000 on 884 sales in August 2025, and an average of $377,572, A median townhouse sale price of $365,000 on 20 sales, against $319,990 on 21, and a median condominium sale price of $330,000 on 16 sales, against $260,000 on 11, 3,086 active single-family listings and 3.6 months of inventory in the City of Fort Worth, A median single-family lease of $2,195 a month on 470 leases, against $2,150 on 453 a year earlier, A median single-family sale price of $343,000 in Tarrant County on 1,736 sales, and $352,250 in the Fort Worth-Arlington-Grapevine metropolitan division, City figures by property type only, with no all-types median; report produced 7 September 2026
- 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
- Fort Worth Rent Report, October 2026 · Apartment List · retrieved Supports: A median rent of $1,141 for a one-bedroom and $1,317 for a two-bedroom in the city of Fort Worth, and $1,336 across all bedroom sizes, Rents down 0.2% over September and down 1.7% over the past 12 months, against -2.1% for the state
- Apartments for rent in Fort Worth, TX: average rent · Apartment List · retrieved Supports: Average listed rents of $1,279 and up for a studio, $1,352 and up for one bedroom, $1,661 and up for two, and $2,066 and up for three or more
- FY 2026 fair market rents, Fort Worth-Arlington, TX HUD Metro FMR Area · United States Department of Housing and Urban Development · retrieved Supports: FY 2026 fair market rents of $1,473 for one bedroom, $1,723 for two and $2,273 for three, as gross rents including utilities, The FMR area as Johnson, Parker and Tarrant counties
- Rates and exemptions: 2025 tax rates per $100 valuation, and detail · Tarrant County Tax Assessor-Collector · retrieved Supports: 2025 rates per $100: Tarrant County 0.186200, City of Fort Worth 0.670000, Fort Worth ISD 1.029100, Keller ISD 1.085200, Tarrant County College 0.112280, JPS Health Network 0.165000, Tarrant Regional Water District 0.026500, Maintenance and debt splits: Tarrant County 0.173000 and 0.013200, City of Fort Worth 0.522500 and 0.147500, Fort Worth ISD 0.786900 and 0.242200, Keller ISD 0.755200 and 0.330000, Tarrant County College 0.096280 and 0.016000, JPS 0.155100 and 0.009900, water district 0.026500 and none, from https://entityportal.tarrantcountytx.gov/ratesExemptions.asp, Homestead exemptions of 20% (minimum $5,000) for Tarrant County, the City of Fort Worth and JPS Health Network, 1% (minimum $5,000) for Tarrant County College, none for the Tarrant Regional Water District, and $140,000 for Fort Worth ISD and Keller ISD, Eagle Mountain-Saginaw ISD at 1.245700, Crowley ISD at 1.255200 with a 10% local option, Emergency Service District 1 at 0.074348, Far North Fort Worth MUD at 1.000000 and Live Oak Creek MUD at 0.942000, Fort Worth public improvement district assessments per $100: PID 1 Downtown 0.125, PID 6 Park Glen 0.155 residential, PID 7 Heritage 0.145 residential, PID 11 Stockyards 0.12, PID 12 Chapel Hill 0.14, PID 14 Trinity Bluff 0.10, PID 15 Sun Valley 0.24, PID 19 Historic Camp Bowie 0.10, PID 20 East Lancaster Avenue 0.266, PID 21 Las Vegas Trail 0.10
- 2025 tax rates per $100 valuation for Tarrant County, last updated 8 October 2025 · Tarrant Appraisal District · retrieved Supports: The same 2025 rates and homestead exemptions for the county, the City, the hospital district, the college, the water district and every school district in the county, Northwest ISD at 1.0841 per $100 for 2025, No 2026 table yet: https://www.tad.org/content/rates/2026TaxRates.pdf returned not found, from https://www.tad.org/resources/rates
- Residential property data, 2026 appraisal roll · Tarrant Appraisal District · retrieved Supports: 255,731 single-family accounts inside the City of Fort Worth in Tarrant County, 121,356 of them in Fort Worth ISD, 33,569 in Eagle Mountain-Saginaw ISD and 32,861 in Keller ISD, 120,071 of the 121,356 City of Fort Worth and Fort Worth ISD single-family accounts carrying the Tarrant Regional Water District
- Tarrant water district lowers property tax rate, but cities will pay more for water use · Fort Worth Report · retrieved Supports: The water district's taxing district, established in 1949, is primarily in Fort Worth and funds operation and maintenance of the 27-mile Fort Worth Floodway
- Valuing property: limitation on residence homestead value increases · Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts · retrieved Supports: A residence homestead's appraised value may not rise more than 10% a year once the owner has qualified in the preceding and current year
- 2020 block assignment files, Texas: unified school districts and places · United States Census Bureau · retrieved Supports: Read with the 2020 redistricting file's block populations, at https://www2.census.gov/programs-surveys/decennial/2020/data/01-Redistricting_File--PL_94-171/Texas/tx2020.pl.zip, and the district names in https://www2.census.gov/geo/docs/maps-data/data/gazetteer/2025_Gazetteer/2025_Gaz_unsd_national.zip, Of the City of Fort Worth's 918,915 residents in 2020: 473,224 in Fort Worth ISD, 119,281 in Keller ISD, 83,129 in Eagle Mountain-Saginaw ISD, 81,929 in Crowley ISD, 67,070 in Northwest ISD, 27,617 in Hurst-Euless-Bedford ISD, 17,470 in White Settlement ISD and 16,049 in Everman ISD, 473,224 of Fort Worth ISD's 519,747 residents inside the city
- 2025 Gazetteer files: places, Texas · United States Census Bureau · retrieved Supports: A land area of 352.011 square miles and a water area of 8.183 square miles for Fort Worth city
- Extraterritorial Jurisdiction (ETJ) · City of Fort Worth Development Services · retrieved Supports: The ETJ as the unincorporated land within five miles of the city limits, where the City can regulate some activities, Water control and improvement districts, fresh water supply districts and municipal utility districts in the ETJ, under the City's MUD policy of 2005
- Extraterritorial Jurisdiction (ETJ) layer, City of Fort Worth open data boundaries · City of Fort Worth · retrieved Supports: The ETJ's polygons summing to 164,965 acres, about 258 square miles, with the latest edit dated 1 September 2026
- Public Improvement Districts (PIDs) · City of Fort Worth · retrieved Supports: Fifteen districts listed: 1 Downtown, 6 Park Glen, 7 Heritage, 11 Stockyards, 12 Chapel Hill, 14 Trinity Bluff, 15 Sun Valley, 16 Walsh Ranch/Quail Valley, 17 Rock Creek Ranch, 18 Tourism, 19 Historic Camp Bowie, 20 East Lancaster Avenue, 21 Las Vegas Trail, 22 Veale Ranch and 23 Panther Island, PIDs 16 and 17, formed in 2016, supporting streets, drainage, water, sewer and other infrastructure; PID 22 Veale Ranch established in 2023 for a 60-year term; PID 23 established in 2026
- Fort Worth Public Improvement District No. 16 (Walsh Ranch/Quail Valley): annual service plan update, fiscal year 2027, 25 August 2026 · City of Fort Worth and MuniCap · retrieved Supports: Fiscal 2027 annual installments per lot in Improvement Area 1 of $482.14 for a 35-foot lot, $597.93 for 50 feet, $737.46 for 60 feet, $940.24 for 70 feet and $1,558.83 for a custom lot, Assessments bearing interest at the rate on the district's bonds, 4.63%, repaid over twenty annual installments, eighteen of them outstanding
- Central City · Tarrant Regional Water District · retrieved Supports: The rerouting of a section of the Trinity River due north of downtown, with flood water storage at Gateway Park, The Army Corps of Engineers building the bypass channel, three isolation gates, a dam, a pump station and ten flood water storage areas; the water district, the City and the state building the rest
- Army Corps awards contract for first half of major $1.2B Fort Worth flood control, development project · Tarrant Regional Water District, republishing WFAA of 24 September 2026 · retrieved Supports: A $169,431,703 contract with Walsh Construction Company for the north bypass channel, An 800-acre island, and 2,400 acres of land protected from flooding
- $403M coming to Panther Island · Tarrant Regional Water District, republishing the Fort Worth Star-Telegram of 19 January 2022 · retrieved Supports: A 1.5-mile bypass channel connecting the Clear and West Forks of the Trinity River north of downtown Fort Worth
- Gas Wells and Gas Compressor/Well Pad Sites layers, planning and development map service · City of Fort Worth · retrieved Supports: 2,351 gas wells, 1,955 of them producing, 287 abandoned, 84 water disposal, 13 permitted and 12 applying, in a layer last edited in December 2025, 529 gas compressor and well pad sites, from layer 9
- Gas well drilling · City of Fort Worth Development Services · retrieved Supports: The Barnett Shale as a natural gas reserve under a 15-county area, about 1.5 miles below the surface, No well drilled closer than 600 feet to a residence, religious institution, public building, hospital, school or public park without a waiver from the protected use owners or City Council approval
- Garbage service · City of Fort Worth Environmental Services · retrieved Supports: Monthly rates of $13.75, $19.50 and $25.75 for the 32-, 64- and 96-gallon garbage cart, shown as effective 1 January 2024, Solid waste fees billed on the Fort Worth water bill as a sanitation fee, with recycling and yard waste collected at no additional charge
- Stormwater utility fee · City of Fort Worth · retrieved Supports: Residential rates from 1 January 2026 of $3.65 a month up to 1,300 square feet of hard surface, $7.29 to 2,475, $10.94 to 3,394 and $14.58 above it, on the monthly water bill
- Texas homeowners insurance market overview · Texas Department of Insurance · retrieved Supports: A statewide average homeowners premium of $3,489 a year for 2025, Hail as the largest cause of paid homeowners losses, $4.93 billion in 2024 against $2.21 billion for wind
- How much is homeowners insurance in Fort Worth, TX? · Insure.com · retrieved Supports: An average Fort Worth premium of $4,290 a year for $300,000 of dwelling cover, $100,000 of liability and a $1,000 deductible, updated 27 May 2026, An average of $3,342 a year for $200,000 of dwelling cover
- Texas homeowners insurance · NerdWallet · retrieved Supports: An average Fort Worth premium of $5,600 a year for $500,000 of dwelling cover, $300,000 of liability and a $1,000 deductible, updated 20 February 2026
- Renters insurance in Texas · NerdWallet · retrieved Supports: An average Fort Worth renters premium of $167 a year, $14 a month, for $30,000 of personal property, updated 23 September 2026
- Monthly homeowners' association and condominium fee, tables B25142 and B25143, 2024 American Community Survey 1-year estimates, Fort Worth city · United States Census Bureau, via the Census Reporter API · retrieved Supports: A median monthly association fee of $55 among Fort Worth owner-occupied units that pay one, 85,299 of 210,450 owner-occupied units, or 40.5%, paying such a fee, and 7,153 paying $500 or more a month
- Homebuyer Assistance Program (HAP) · City of Fort Worth Neighborhood Services · retrieved Supports: Up to $25,000 of interest-free assistance toward the down payment and closing costs, as a forgivable loan: forgiven after ten years in the home, or after five on $14,999 or less, Income limits updated July 2026 of $61,800 for one person to $88,250 for four, First-time buyers, or anyone who has not owned a home in three years; an eight-hour homebuyer class; a contribution of $1,000 or 2% of the price, whichever is less; a home inside the city limits; a sales price no more than 95% of the area median, under the HOME rules