City comparison · 1,475 km apart

Tampa vs Dallas: which should you move to?

Tampa 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.

Downtown Tampa
Florida · United States

Tampa

Photograph: Downtown Tampa · Clément Bardot · CC BY-SA 4.0 · source
Downtown across the Trinity
Texas · United States

Dallas

Photograph: Downtown across the Trinity · Tony Webster · CC BY-SA 2.0 · source
The short answer

Both cities price in US dollars and neither state taxes income, so the figures net directly, a single filer on $100,000 pays the same $13,449 in federal tax in each, and the tax story is the house. Mortgage, property tax and insurance come to about $2,906 a month on Tampa's typical home and about $3,529 on the Dallas single-family median, a $623 gap that would be about $550 with Tampa's payment at Dallas's September rate of 7.03% rather than August's 6.67%, and Tampa's figure is before flood cover, which much of the city effectively needs. Against local pay the gap is wider, roughly 41% of the City of Tampa's median household income against 57% of Dallas's. Renting runs the other way, $1,853 for a two-bedroom in Dallas against $1,999. Tampa reports the lower crime, 17 homicides in 2025, about 4.1 per 100,000, against 140 at about 10.5, on counts built differently. Dallas has the bigger job market and the higher pay. Choose Tampa to own a house for less, for a 16.7 C January and for Tampa General. Choose Dallas to rent, for corporate and logistics work and for DFW, and budget for hail.

Population
MeasureTampaDallasAdvantage
City population413,554 (2025)1,329,491 (2025)Not directly comparable
Metro population3,418,895 (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.
7.3% (2020-2025)1.9% (2020-2025)Not directly comparable
01: Housing

What a home costs in each

The figures the two cities' rent-versus-buy and mortgage calculators run on, read from the same tables.

Housing costs
MeasureTampaDallasAdvantage
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.
$380,283 (June 2026)$469,900 (August 2026)Tampa
Detached house benchmark
Tampa and Dallas publish a single house index rather than a composite, so the two rows repeat.
$380,283$469,900Tampa
Apartment or condominium benchmarkNot published$310,000Not directly comparable
Two-bedroom rent$1,999/mo (median, June 2026)$1,853/mo (average, August 2026)Dallas
One-bedroom rent$1,719/mo$1,416/moDallas
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.
28.5% of a year's income29.9% of a year's incomeTampa
Mortgage payment on the benchmark, 20% down
30-year amortization on American monthly compounding, the convention in both.
$1,957/mo at 6.67%$2,509/mo at 7.03%Tampa
Price to household income
Benchmark price divided by the median household income below. A ratio is comparable across currencies; the dollars are not.
4.5×6.3×Tampa
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.
$6,712/yr (1.765%, 2025)$7,448/yr (1.585%, 2025)Dallas
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.
$2,662 (seller pays)NoneDallas
Rent control
A cap protects a sitting tenant and does nothing for the next lease, so neither column is simply better.
Forbidden by state lawForbidden by state lawNot directly comparable

Tampa: About 1.77% of what you pay for the house, which is lower than the 19.8428 mills Tampa is charged, and the difference is Florida's homestead exemption rather than any assessment lag. The state assesses at full market value and a purchase resets the assessment to the price. What there is instead is an exemption: $25,000 of taxable value comes off for every taxing authority and a second slice comes off for all of them except the Hillsborough County school board, which levies 6.3400 of the 19.8428. That second slice was $25,000 through the 2024 tax roll and has been adjusted for inflation every 1 January since, under the 2024 amendment to Article VII section 6 of the state constitution, so it is now somewhat more than $25,000. The figures here use the base amount, because the Department of Revenue sends the adjusted figure to the county property appraisers rather than publishing it. The difference is worth a few dollars a year on a bill, and the county property appraiser can tell you the amount in force. A homesteaded buyer's first-year bill is therefore about $6,712 on the $380,283 typical home value here. That 19.8428 is the figure Hillsborough County publishes for this taxing district rather than a total assembled here, and Tampa's own council sets 6.2076 of it. The exemption is not automatic: you file for it with the county property appraiser by 1 March of the year after you buy. The seller's tax bill is not a guide to yours. Save Our Homes caps a homesteaded property's assessed value at 3% growth a year, and that cap resets to full market value the January after the sale, so a long-tenured owner can be taxed on a fraction of what you will be taxed on for the same house. Ask the property appraiser what the assessment would be at your purchase price, not what the current bill is. 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.

02: Crime and safety

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.

Crime
MeasureTampaDallasAdvantage
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 publishedNot publishedNot directly comparable
Violent crime per 100,000376 (2025)577 (2025)Tampa
Property crime per 100,0001,465 (2024)3,081 (2025)Tampa
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.
17 (2025)140 (2025)Not directly comparable
Tampa

Violent crime in the city fell from 2,031 offences in 2023 to 1,862 in 2024 and 1,553 in 2025 (TPD 2025 Annual Report), with homicides halving in 2025 to 17. Total crime fell 21.3% in 2025 and TPD reported a 22% mid-year drop the year before, so the direction over three years is clearly down, though the figures remain preliminary until certified under NIBRS.

What the rates cover: Computed: Tampa Police Department 2025 Annual Report counts 1,553 violent crimes (robbery, aggravated assault/battery, murder, sexual battery) in 2025, down from 1,862 in 2024 and 2,031 in 2023; divided by the 413,554 Vintage 2025 city population. FBI UCR-based 2024 figure for comparison: 1,817 offences, 445 per 100k. TPD notes Florida moved to NIBRS in 2022 and figures are preliminary until certified by FDLE and the FBI.

Homicides: City of Tampa, 2025: 17 homicides, a 52.8% drop from 36 in 2024 (FBI UCR 2024 count 36, 8.8 per 100k). Works out to about 4.1 per 100k in 2025. TPD calls it the lowest annual total in more than 50 years. One January 2026 FOX 13 report quoted 19; the 52.8% figure in TPD's annual report is consistent with 17.

Dallas

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.

03: Climate

Winters, summers and what the weather can do to a house

Climate normals
MeasureTampaDallasAdvantage
January mean16.7 °C8.8 °CNot directly comparable
July mean28.8 °C30.7 °CNot directly comparable
Precipitation a year1,176 mm973 mmNot directly comparable
Snowfall a year0 cm4 cmNot directly comparable
Sunshine a yearNot published2,850 hoursNot directly comparable
Tampa

NOAA NCEI 1991-2020 normals, Tampa International Airport (USW00012842): January mean 62.0 F, July mean 83.8 F (August is the warmest month at 84.0 F), annual precipitation 46.30 in, annual snow normal 0. About 30 of those inches (762 mm) fall June through September. Sunshine hours are not part of the 1991-2020 normals product and were not verified.

Hazards: Hurricanes and storm surge are the defining hazard: Helene's surge in September 2024 flooded coastal Tampa Bay neighborhoods, then Milton made landfall near Siesta Key on October 9, 2024 as a Category 3, and 2024 alone generated 10,261 NFIP flood claims and about $1.1 billion in payouts in Hillsborough County. Flood insurance is effectively required in much of the city and has grown costlier under NFIP Risk Rating 2.0; summer heat indices above 100 F and daily lightning storms are routine from June to September.

Dallas

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.

04: Income, jobs and taxes

What people earn and what the government takes

Income and taxes
MeasureTampaDallasAdvantage
Median household income$84,114 USD (2024)$74,323 USD (2024)Tampa
Unemployment rate4.7% (June 2026)4.2% (July 2026)Dallas
Sales tax7.5%8.25%Tampa
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.
37%37%Even
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.
$13,449 USD$13,449 USDEven
Tampa

BLS counted 1,583,300 nonfarm jobs in the MSA in December 2025, up 0.9% over the year, with education and health services (+4.2%) and leisure and hospitality (+2.0%) leading and the May 2025 mean hourly wage of $31.96 sitting below the US average of $33.54. The largest industries by employment in the metro in 2024 were health care and social assistance, retail trade, and professional, scientific and technical services (Census ACS via Data USA).

Main sectors: Health care and social assistance, Finance, insurance and professional services, Retail and leisure/hospitality, Port, logistics and defense (Port Tampa Bay, MacDill AFB), Higher education and research (USF, Moffitt).

Florida has no state income tax, estate tax or inheritance tax. Property tax is the main local levy; homesteaded owners get a $50,000 exemption and the Save Our Homes 3% annual assessment cap, which means long-time owners pay much less than a new buyer of the same house.

Dallas

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.

05: Getting around

Whether you need a car

Transit
MeasureTampaDallasAdvantage
SystemHART (Hillsborough Area Regional Transit) buses, the TECO Line Streetcar between downtown and Ybor City, and HART's MetroRapid and on-demand HARTFlex servicesDART 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 zonesNot directly comparable
Commute by public transit1.2% (2024)2.0% (2024)Dallas
Walk or cycle to work3.4% (2024)2.5% (2024)Tampa
AirportTampa International Airport (TPA), 24,811,007 passengers in calendar 2025 (+0.22% on 2024), 27th busiest US airport, 635 daily flights, Southwest the largest carrier at 24% (TPA Fact Sheet, June 2026).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
Tampa

HART carried about 11.94 million unlinked trips in 2025 (APTA Transit Ridership Report, Q4 2025). The 2.7-mile TECO Line Streetcar, fare-free since 2018, carried 1,323,715 riders in 2024, its record year.

Dallas

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.

06: Daily life

Health care, schools and what each city is like

Tampa

Health care

Care is paid for through employer plans, ACA marketplace plans, Medicare and Medicaid; Florida has not expanded Medicaid, so low-income adults without children often fall into the coverage gap, and out-of-pocket costs depend entirely on the plan. Tampa General Hospital (the USF Health teaching hospital, ranked the top hospital in the Tampa Bay region by U.S. News for 11 straight years through 2026-2027, with OB-GYN ranked fifth nationally in 2025-2026), Moffitt Cancer Center (an NCI-designated comprehensive cancer center), AdventHealth Tampa, St. Joseph's and the James A. Haley VA are the major hospitals; specialist waits are usually weeks rather than months but vary by insurer network.

Education

The University of South Florida (about 48,700 students across Tampa, St. Petersburg and Sarasota-Manatee in 2025-26, an AAU member since 2023) and the private University of Tampa anchor higher education, with Hillsborough Community College for two-year programs. Schools are run by a single county district, Hillsborough County Public Schools, the seventh-largest in the US, whose 40-day enrollment fell 3.9% to 213,513 in 2025-26 as families took state vouchers and charters; it runs 42 magnet schools (about 17,500 students in 2024-25) with admission by lottery, so the school you get depends as much on the choice application as on the address.

Living there

Tampa is a flat, hot, car-first city where a 26-minute average commute hides the reality that I-275 and the Howard Frankland Bridge back up daily and transit carries about one commuter in a hundred. The walkable parts are concentrated: the Riverwalk, Hyde Park, Seminole Heights and Ybor City, with the streetcar linking downtown to Ybor for free. Flood zone and elevation now matter as much as school zone when picking a house, after Helene's surge in 2024 showed which streets go under; summers mean afternoon lightning storms and heat indices over 100 F from June into September.

Dallas

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.

07: The trade-offs

Where each city wins, and where it loses

Both cities price in US dollars, so the figures net directly, though the prices are different instruments. Tampa's is Zillow's typical home value for the city across all homes, $380,283 in June 2026, 2.1% below a year earlier; Dallas's is the NTREIS median of single-family houses sold, $469,900 in August, 6.0% below, and Zillow's all-homes index for Dallas is $305,765. Against local pay they are 4.5 times the City of Tampa's 2024 median household income of $84,114 and about 6.3 times Dallas's $74,323. At 20% down, Tampa's $304,226 loan at 6.67%, Freddie Mac's August rate, costs $1,957 a month, and Dallas's $375,920 loan at 7.03%, the rate for 24 September, about $2,509. A homesteaded Tampa buyer's first-year property tax is about $6,712, 1.77% of price, against $7,448 in Dallas, 1.58%, and insurance is budgeted at $390 a month against $400, Tampa's excluding flood. The three lines come to about $2,906 and $3,529, roughly 41% and 57% of local median income; at 7.03% Tampa's would be about $2,979. Renting runs the other way. A median two-bedroom was $1,999 in Tampa in June 2026 and an average one $1,853 in Dallas in August, and a one-bedroom $1,719 against $1,416.

Tampa's reported figures are lower on every line, and the two sets are built differently enough to be held loosely. Tampa Police counted 1,553 violent crimes in 2025, about 375.5 per 100,000 on the city's 413,554 residents, a department count on its own categories that stays preliminary until certified under NIBRS; the FBI's 2024 file gave Tampa 445 per 100,000. Dallas's 7,674 violent offenses are the FBI's count for 2025, 577 per 100,000 on the Census estimate, used because DPD publishes no total on those definitions. Homicide is the cleaner line: 17 in Tampa, about 4.1 per 100,000 and the lowest in more than 50 years, after 36 in 2024, against 140 in Dallas, about 10.5, and 141 on DPD's own count. Property crime cannot be matched by year. Tampa's newest count is the FBI's for 2024, 5,988 offenses or 1,465 per 100,000; Dallas's rate was 3,081 in 2025 on 40,962 offenses, after 45,106 in 2024, so Tampa's is lower on either year. Violent crime dropped 12% in Dallas in 2025 and 31% in four years, and Tampa's count has dropped every year since 2023. The Dallas counts were read on 27 September 2026 and can still be revised.

Tampa has the warm winter and Dallas the hotter summer. January averages 16.7 C at Tampa International against 8.8 C at Love Field, and July 28.8 C against 30.7 C, the warmest July mean of the fourteen cities this site compares. Tampa gets 1,176 mm of rain a year, about 30 in (762 mm) of it from June to September, and no snow; Dallas gets 973 mm and 4.3 cm. The heat is counted differently: Tampa's routine risk is summer heat indices above 100 F, humidity included, with daily lightning storms, and Love Field's normals count 22.4 days a year when the air itself reaches 100F (37.8 C), with 54 in 2026 by 22 September. The storms differ in kind. Helene's surge flooded coastal Tampa Bay neighborhoods in September 2024, Milton made landfall near Siesta Key as a Category 3 on 9 October, and Hillsborough County generated 10,261 flood insurance claims and about $1.1 billion in payouts that year. Dallas's costly weather is hail and tornadoes, with flash floods on its creeks, and its rare hard freeze came with Winter Storm Uri, which brought 2F (-16.7 C) in February 2021 while ERCOT cut power across the state grid.

Dallas has the larger labor market and the higher pay, and on the headline rate the two are level. On the same unadjusted basis, metro unemployment was 4.6% in Dallas-Fort Worth in July 2026 and 4.7% in Tampa Bay in June, 0.7 points higher than a year earlier there; Dallas's seasonally adjusted rate was 4.2%. The Dallas metro's 4,353,400 nonfarm jobs grew 1.3% in the year to July 2026, and Tampa Bay's 1,583,300 grew 0.9% in the year to December 2025. Dallas's average weekly wage was $1,785 in the first quarter of 2026 against $1,654 nationally, while Tampa's mean hourly wage of $31.96 in May 2025 sat below the national $33.54. Median household income was $84,114 in the City of Tampa and $74,323 in Dallas in 2024, and $78,275 and $92,733 across the metros. Neither state taxes income, so $100,000 pays the same $13,449 in federal tax for 2025, and sales tax is 7.5% in Hillsborough against 8.25%. Property tax and insurance come to about $11,392 a year on Tampa's typical home, before flood cover, against $12,248 on the Dallas median.

A car is assumed in both, and Dallas has much more transit. In 2024, 2.0% of Dallas workers took transit and 2.5% walked or cycled, against 1.2% and 3.4% in the City of Tampa, where a mean commute of 26.1 minutes hides daily backups on I-275 and the Howard Frankland Bridge; 68.6% of Dallas workers drove alone. The metro shares are 0.6% around Dallas and 0.95% in Tampa Bay. 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 carried 52,823,800 trips in 2025. HART carried about 11.94 million across Hillsborough County, and the fare-free TECO Line Streetcar, 2.7 miles from downtown to Ybor City, had a record 1,323,715 riders in 2024. DART's suburbs have pushed back on the 1% sales tax that pays for it: Plano, Irving and Farmers Branch won back part of what they pay, and Highland Park voted to leave. The airports are further apart than the transit. Tampa International handled 24,811,007 passengers in 2025 on 635 daily flights, with Southwest the largest carrier; DFW handled 85,660,127, 82.6% of them on American Airlines, and Love Field 16,899,203.

Neither state has expanded Medicaid, so coverage in both runs through an employer or marketplace plan, Medicare or Medicaid, and Tampa's profile notes that low-income adults without children often fall into the gap. Texas had the highest uninsured rate of any state in 2024, 16.7%, and the City of Dallas's was 22.7%. Tampa's hospitals are a strength: Tampa General, the USF Health teaching hospital, has been ranked the top hospital in the Tampa Bay region by U.S. News for 11 straight years through 2026-2027, and Moffitt is an NCI-designated comprehensive cancer center. Dallas's anchors are Parkland Memorial, the county's only public 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. Tampa's profile puts specialist waits in weeks; Dallas's verified none. Hillsborough County Public Schools enrolled 213,513 in 2025-26, 3.9% fewer than a year earlier as families took vouchers and charters, and admits to its 42 magnets by lottery. Dallas ISD 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 for 2025. USF has about 48,700 students and joined the AAU in 2023.

What people underestimate is that the hail city's insurance line is the higher one, and that neither includes flood. This site budgets $400 a month for a Dallas house, an estimate, because North Texas hail is routine: Cotality counted more than 235,000 Texas homes hit by damaging hail in 2025. Tampa's $390 prices the city as a coastal address, against $250 for an inland Tampa Bay one, and flood cover comes on top, priced by the elevation certificate on ground that runs from 9 ft (2.7 m) above the bay in the Channel District to 49 ft (14.9 m) in Seminole Heights. Dallas floods from its creeks rather than the bay: on 21 and 22 August 2022, 9.19 in (233 mm) fell at DFW Airport in 24 hours. No flood premium is recorded here for either city, so the only reliable figure is a quote on the address. The tax bills also reset on a sale in both. Florida ends the seller's Save Our Homes cap of 3% a year and assesses at the price, and a Texas buyer starts at full value under the 10% homestead cap, so neither seller's bill is a guide, and both exemptions have to be filed.

Tampa

Better here

  • The typical home was $380,283 in June 2026, 4.5 times the city's 2024 median household income against about 6.3 in Dallas, and the mortgage at 20% down is $1,957 a month against about $2,509.
  • Mortgage, property tax and insurance come to about $2,906 a month, roughly 41% of local median income, and about $2,979 at September's 7.03%, against $3,529 and 57% in Dallas.
  • There were 17 homicides in 2025, about 4.1 per 100,000, against 140 and about 10.5 in Dallas, and property crime was 1,465 per 100,000 in 2024 against Dallas's 3,081 in 2025.
  • January averages 16.7 C with no snow on the 1991-2020 normals, against 8.8 C in Dallas, where Winter Storm Uri brought 2F (-16.7 C) in February 2021.
  • Tampa General has been the region's top-ranked hospital for 11 straight years through 2026-2027, and Moffitt is an NCI-designated comprehensive cancer center.
  • City median household income was $84,114 in 2024 against $74,323 in Dallas, and sales tax is 7.5% against 8.25%.

Worse here

  • Insurance is budgeted at $390 a month and excludes flood; Hillsborough County generated 10,261 flood claims and about $1.1 billion in payouts in 2024.
  • The mean hourly wage of $31.96 in May 2025 sat below the national $33.54, where Dallas's average weekly wage of $1,785 in early 2026 was above the national $1,654.
  • A median two-bedroom rented for $1,999 in June 2026 against a $1,853 average in Dallas in August, a one-bedroom $1,719 against $1,416, and association fees are estimated at $700 a month against $400.
  • Nonfarm jobs grew 0.9% to 1,583,300 in the year to December 2025, against 1.3% to 4,353,400 in Dallas-Fort Worth in the year to July 2026.
  • Only 1.2% of workers commuted by transit in 2024, against 2.0% in Dallas, and HART carried about 11.94 million trips in 2025 against DART's 52,823,800.
  • Tampa International handled 24,811,007 passengers in 2025, against 85,660,127 at DFW and 16,899,203 at Love Field.

Choose Tampa if

  • you want to own a house for about 41% of local median income a month rather than 57%, and will buy on elevation and flood zone first
  • you want a January at 16.7 C and the Gulf, and will carry flood cover to get it
  • you work in health care, insurance, the port or defense
  • you want Tampa General and Moffitt inside the city you live in

The Tampa guide · Neighborhoods · Tampa rent vs buy · Tampa mortgage calculator

Dallas

Better here

  • A two-bedroom averaged $1,853 in August 2026 against a $1,999 median in Tampa in June, and a one-bedroom $1,416 against $1,719.
  • Average weekly wages in the metro were $1,785 in the first quarter of 2026 against $1,654 nationally, and median household income was $92,733 across the metro in 2024 against Tampa Bay's $78,275.
  • The metro had 4,353,400 nonfarm jobs in July 2026, 1.3% more than a year earlier, and the region counts 21 Fortune 500 headquarters.
  • DFW handled 85,660,127 passengers in 2025 and Love Field another 16,899,203, against 24,811,007 at Tampa International.
  • DART runs 93 miles of light rail and carried 52,823,800 trips in 2025 against HART's 11.94 million, and 2.0% of workers commuted by transit in 2024 against 1.2% in Tampa.
  • The homestead exemptions take $140,000 off the school levy and 20% off the county, city, college and hospital district, so the effective rate on the median is 1.58% for 2025 against 1.77% on Tampa's typical home.

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, and about $3,439 at August's 6.67%, against $2,906 and 41% in Tampa.
  • The median sale price of $469,900 in August 2026 is about 6.3 times the city's median household income, against 4.5 times for Tampa's typical home.
  • There were 140 homicides in 2025, about 10.5 per 100,000, against 17 and about 4.1 in Tampa.
  • 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.
  • Texas had the highest uninsured rate of any state in 2024, 16.7%, and the City of Dallas's was 22.7%.
  • Home insurance is budgeted at $400 a month, above coastal Tampa's $390, because North Texas hail is a routine cost and tornadoes reach the city itself, as in October 2019.

Choose Dallas if

  • you rent, and would pay about $1,853 for a two-bedroom rather than $1,999
  • you work in corporate headquarters, finance, logistics or aerospace and want pay above the national average
  • you fly often enough that an airport handling 85,660,127 passengers in 2025 changes how you travel
  • you would rather plan around hail and 100F days than a hurricane season on the bay

The Dallas guide · Neighborhoods · Dallas rent vs buy · Dallas mortgage calculator

08: Questions people ask

Tampa or Dallas, in short

Is Tampa or Dallas cheaper to live in?

Tampa to own and Dallas to rent. Both cities price in US dollars, so the figures net directly. Tampa's typical home was $380,283 in June 2026 against the Dallas single-family median sale price of $469,900 in August, and the mortgage at 20% down is $1,957 against about $2,509, though Tampa's uses August's 6.67% rate and Dallas's September's 7.03%. Property tax is about $6,712 a year against $7,448 and insurance $390 a month against $400, so the three lines come to about $2,906 in Tampa and $3,529 in Dallas, or about $2,979 for Tampa at the same 7.03%. That is before flood cover, which much of Tampa effectively needs. Renting favors Dallas: a two-bedroom averaged $1,853 there in August 2026 against a $1,999 median in Tampa, and a one-bedroom $1,416 against $1,719. Neither state taxes income, and sales tax is 7.5% in Hillsborough against 8.25% in Dallas.

Is Tampa or Dallas safer?

Tampa, on the figures each city reports, which are not built the same way. Tampa Police counted 1,553 violent crimes in 2025, about 375.5 per 100,000, and 17 homicides, about 4.1 per 100,000 and the fewest in more than 50 years. Dallas's FBI counts give 577 violent offenses per 100,000 and 140 homicides, about 10.5, with DPD's own count at 141. Tampa's newest property figure is the FBI's for 2024, 1,465 per 100,000, against Dallas's 3,081 in 2025. Tampa's counts are preliminary until certified under NIBRS, and the FBI's own 2024 file put its violent rate at 445, still well below Dallas's; the Dallas counts, read on 27 September 2026, can still be revised. Both are improving: Tampa's violent count has dropped every year since 2023, and Dallas's violent offenses dropped 12% in 2025.

Which has the better job market, Tampa or Dallas?

Dallas's is larger and pays more, though unemployment is about level. On the same unadjusted basis, metro unemployment was 4.6% in Dallas-Fort Worth in July 2026 and 4.7% in Tampa Bay in June, 0.7 points higher than a year earlier there. Dallas's 4,353,400 nonfarm jobs grew 1.3% in the year to July 2026 and Tampa Bay's 1,583,300 grew 0.9% in the year to December 2025. Dallas's average weekly wage was $1,785 in the first quarter of 2026, above the national $1,654, while Tampa's mean hourly wage of $31.96 in May 2025 was below the national $33.54. Tampa's work leans on health care, finance and insurance, the port and MacDill Air Force Base; Dallas's on trade and transportation, corporate headquarters, finance and aerospace. Median household income was $92,733 across the Dallas metro in 2024 against $78,275 in Tampa Bay, though the City of Tampa's $84,114 is above the City of Dallas's $74,323.

How much do storms and flood risk change the comparison?

Enough to check before anything else, in both cities. Neither carry here includes flood insurance. In Tampa the risk is surge: Helene flooded coastal Tampa Bay neighborhoods in September 2024, Hillsborough County generated 10,261 flood insurance claims and about $1.1 billion in payouts that year, and flood cover is effectively required in much of the city, priced by the elevation certificate. In Dallas the costly routine hazard is hail, which is why its homeowners budget of $400 a month sits above coastal Tampa's $390, and the flood risk runs down the creeks: in August 2022, 9.19 in (233 mm) fell at DFW Airport in 24 hours. The Trinity River passes downtown between 23 miles (37 km) of levees. No flood premium is recorded on this site for either city, so get a quote on the address before comparing.

Sources

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.

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    Supports: City population, Five-year growth
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    Supports: Metro population, Five-year growth
  3. Florida Metropolitan Statistical Areas, 2025 Estimate · Florida Office of Economic and Demographic Research · retrieved
    Supports: Metro population
  4. Tampa Police Department Annual Report 2025: Strength in Partnerships · City of Tampa · retrieved
    Supports: Violent crime rate, Homicides, Crime trend, Property crime rate
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    Supports: Crime trend
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    Supports: Homicides
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    Supports: Homicides
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    Supports: Crime trend
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  10. US Climate Normals 1991-2020, station USW00012842 Tampa International Airport (Access Data Service) · NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information · retrieved
    Supports: January mean, July mean, Annual precipitation, Annual snowfall
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    Supports: Climate hazards
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    Supports: Climate hazards
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    Supports: Climate hazards
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    Supports: Median household income, Transit commute share, Walk and cycle commute share
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    Supports: Median household income, Transit commute share, Walk and cycle commute share
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    Supports: Unemployment rate
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    Supports: Unemployment rate
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    Supports: Labour market
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    Supports: Labour market
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    Supports: Main sectors, Labour market
  21. TIP 25A01-12: Hillsborough County Surtax Rate Update · Florida Department of Revenue · retrieved
    Supports: Sales tax
  22. 2025 Tax Brackets · Tax Foundation · retrieved
    Supports: Top marginal income tax, Income tax on $100,000
  23. Hillsborough Area Regional Transit (citing APTA Transit Ridership Report Q4 2025) · Wikipedia · retrieved
    Supports: Transit ridership
  24. TECO Line Streetcar · Wikipedia · retrieved
    Supports: Transit ridership
  25. TPA Fact Sheet: Activity Report, Calendar Year 2025 · Tampa International Airport / Hillsborough County Aviation Authority · retrieved
    Supports: Airport passengers
  26. Tampa General Is the Top-Ranked Hospital in the Tampa Bay Region for the 11th Year in a Row, According to U.S. News & World Report · Tampa General Hospital via PR Newswire · retrieved
    Supports: Health care
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    Supports: Health care
  28. State University System of Florida 2025-2026 Matrix · Florida Board of Governors · retrieved
    Supports: Education
  29. HCPS data shows total county enrollment has declined since last year · Plant City Observer · retrieved
    Supports: Education
  30. 2024 Annual Report, Growth Management · Hillsborough County Public Schools · retrieved
    Supports: Education
  31. 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
  32. 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, Character
  33. 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
  34. Violent Crime Reduction Plan Update, Public Safety Committee, June 3, 2025 · Dallas Police Department (City of Dallas) · retrieved
    Supports: Violent crime rate, Crime trend
  35. Police Incidents (Dallas Police Public Data, RMS incidents from June 1, 2014) · City of Dallas OpenData · retrieved
    Supports: Violent crime rate
  36. Dallas sees lowest violent crime numbers since 2015 as chief credits new crime strategies · CBS Texas · retrieved
    Supports: Homicides, Crime trend
  37. 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
  38. 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
  39. 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
  40. 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
  41. Dallas/Fort Worth: Annual and Consecutive 100 Degree Days (last updated 22 September 2026) · National Weather Service, Fort Worth/Dallas · retrieved
    Supports: Climate hazards
  42. Average Annual Sunshine in US Cities · Current Results (NCDC Comparative Climatic Data, 1961-1990) · retrieved
    Supports: Sunshine hours, Climate normals
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    Supports: Climate hazards
  44. April 11th 2016 Hail Storm · National Weather Service, Fort Worth/Dallas · retrieved
    Supports: Climate hazards
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    Supports: Climate hazards
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    Supports: Climate hazards
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  48. December 26, 2015 Tornado Outbreak · National Weather Service, Fort Worth/Dallas · retrieved
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    Supports: Climate hazards
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    Supports: Climate hazards
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    Supports: Climate hazards
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    Supports: Climate hazards
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    Supports: Climate hazards
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    Supports: Climate hazards
  55. How the Texas power grid is holding up during the winter storm · CBS Texas · retrieved
    Supports: Climate hazards
  56. Energy Secretary Issues Emergency Order to Secure Texas Grid Amid Winter Storm Fern · US Department of Energy · retrieved
    Supports: Climate hazards
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    Supports: Climate hazards
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    Supports: Climate hazards
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    Supports: Median household income, Transit commute share, Walk and cycle commute share, Character
  60. 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
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    Supports: Unemployment rate
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    Supports: Labour market
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    Supports: Unemployment rate, Main sectors, Labour market
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    Supports: Main sectors, Labour market
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    Supports: Sales tax
  66. Transit Sales and Use Tax (Dallas MTA, effective January 1, 1984) · Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts · retrieved
    Supports: Sales tax, Transit ridership
  67. Sales and Use Tax · Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts · retrieved
    Supports: Sales tax
  68. Texas Tax Rates & Rankings · Tax Foundation · retrieved
    Supports: Top marginal income tax, Income tax on $100,000, Tax notes, Character
  69. 2026 Tax Brackets and Federal Income Tax Rates · Tax Foundation · retrieved
    Supports: Top marginal income tax, Income tax on $100,000
  70. Property Tax Exemptions · Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts · retrieved
    Supports: Tax notes
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    Supports: Tax notes, Character
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    Supports: Tax notes, Character
  73. About DART (DART facts) · Dallas Area Rapid Transit · retrieved
    Supports: Transit system, Transit ridership, Character
  74. Silver Line Launches Oct. 25, Connecting Seven Cities and DFW Airport with Modern, Reliable Transit · Dallas Area Rapid Transit · retrieved
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  76. DART services in Richardson, Plano to remain unchanged as Highland Park withdraws · Community Impact · retrieved
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    Supports: Airport passengers
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  79. Dallas Love Field (2025 passenger totals from the FAA, location, Southwest Airlines) · Wikipedia · retrieved
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  80. Status of State Medicaid Expansion Decisions · KFF · retrieved
    Supports: Health care
  81. Parkland Memorial Hospital · UT Southwestern Medical Center · retrieved
    Supports: Health care
  82. About the Trauma Center · Parkland Health · retrieved
    Supports: Health care
  83. Baylor University Medical Center, part of Baylor Scott & White Health · Baylor Scott & White Health · retrieved
    Supports: Health care
  84. 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
  85. 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
  86. New Dallas Pediatric Campus Puts Children First · Southwestern Medical District · retrieved
    Supports: Health care
  87. On Dallas ISD's first day of school, enrollment's down, but letter grade may be up · KERA News · retrieved
    Supports: Education, Character
  88. Southern Methodist University (fall 2025 enrollment, University Park) · Wikipedia · retrieved
    Supports: Education
  89. University of Texas at Dallas (Richardson) · Wikipedia · retrieved
    Supports: Education
  90. Dallas College (seven campuses in Dallas County) · Wikipedia · retrieved
    Supports: Education
  91. Zillow Home Value Index (ZHVI), all homes, mid-tier, smoothed and seasonally adjusted: city file, June 2026 · Zillow Research · retrieved
    Supports: A typical home value for each municipality, computed on one method across all twenty-four, The same series and month the Charlotte, Orlando, Palm Beach and Miami pages use, Year-over-year change to June 2026, which is negative in twenty-three of the twenty-four
  92. Final 2025 millage rates by taxing district · Hillsborough County Property Appraiser · retrieved
    Supports: Published totals of 19.8428 for Tampa, 19.5319 for Temple Terrace, 18.2926 for Plant City and 18.2515 for the unincorporated county, Every component behind them, including the 0.5583 library services levy Temple Terrace and Plant City are outside and the 0.5000 transit authority levy Plant City is outside, A county General Purpose MSTU of 4.6163 paid in the unincorporated area in place of a municipal rate
  93. Millage rates levied for 2025 taxes · Pinellas County Tax Collector · retrieved
    Supports: A published real estate total for every taxing district in Pinellas County, from Redington Shores at 15.1568 to Belleair at 20.4449, including St Petersburg at 19.9197 and Belleair Beach at 15.4466, Countywide components: general fund 4.5423, health department 0.0713, emergency medical services 0.8050 and school 6.2930, Other districts totalling 1.0256: planning council 0.0175, Juvenile Welfare Board 0.8250 and the Southwest Florida Water Management District 0.1831, The Transit District at 0.7300 and which districts are inside it, and the Pinellas Suncoast Fire District at 0.6700 and which are inside that
  94. Table 1: Comparison of Taxes Levied, county and municipal governments, fiscal years 2024-25 and 2025-26 · Florida Department of Revenue, Property Tax Oversight · retrieved
    Supports: Independent confirmation of each municipality's own adopted 2025-26 levy in both counties
  95. Annual estimates of the resident population for incorporated places, 2020 to 2024 · United States Census Bureau, Population Estimates Program · retrieved
    Supports: 2020 census counts and 2024 estimates for each municipality, Tampa at 414,547 and St. Petersburg at 267,102; Indian Shores at 1,190
  96. Hurricane Helene storm surge and Pinellas County flooding, September 2024 · Latent Insurance, on National Weather Service and Pinellas County data · retrieved
    Supports: The largest storm surge on record for St. Petersburg, over six feet in the city and more than seven on the barrier islands, Thousands of Pinellas homes flooded, many of which had never flooded before, St. Petersburg single-family homeowners insurance of roughly $3,900 to $5,500 a year with wind coverage, and higher on the barrier islands
  97. Home insurance in Tampa, Florida: 2026 rates · InsuranceQuotes · retrieved
    Supports: Tampa homeowners insurance averaging about $2,400 a year in 2026, A Tampa Bay range of roughly $3,285 to $5,100 across Hillsborough, Pinellas and Pasco
  98. Primary Mortgage Market Survey · Freddie Mac · retrieved
    Supports: 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaging 6.67%
  99. Documentary stamp tax · Florida Department of Revenue · retrieved
    Supports: 70 cents per $100 on a deed, in every county except Miami-Dade, which charges 60 cents plus a 45-cent surtax, 35 cents per $100 on a promissory note or other written obligation to pay money
  100. Governmental leasehold intangible personal property tax and the non-recurring intangible tax on mortgages · Florida Department of Revenue · retrieved
    Supports: A non-recurring intangible tax of 2 mills: 0.2%, on the obligation secured by a mortgage on Florida real property
  101. Property tax exemptions and additional benefits · Florida Department of Revenue · retrieved
    Supports: A $25,000 homestead exemption applying to all taxing authorities and a second slice, $25,000 in the 2024 base year and adjusted for inflation each 1 January since, applying to all but the school district, The Save Our Homes assessment limitation of 3% or the change in CPI, whichever is lower, Portability of up to $500,000 of accrued Save Our Homes benefit to a new homestead, The 1 March filing deadline
  102. Chapter 2023-17, Laws of Florida: preemption of rent control · The Florida Senate · retrieved
    Supports: The repeal of the referendum exception that had allowed a local rent control ordinance in a declared housing emergency
  103. 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
  104. 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
  105. Zillow Home Value Index, all homes, middle tier, smoothed and seasonally adjusted, by city · Zillow Research · retrieved
    Supports: A typical home value of $305,765 for the city of Dallas (region 38128) in August 2026, $310,919 in August 2025, so a fall of 1.7% over the year
  106. Zillow Home Value Index, single-family and condominium series, by city · Zillow Research · retrieved
    Supports: A typical single-family value of $319,987 in the city of Dallas in August 2026, against $324,674 a year earlier, down 1.4%, A typical condominium value of $208,501 in the same month, against $222,477, down 6.3%, 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
  107. 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
  108. Zillow Observed Rent Index, all homes plus multifamily, smoothed, by city · Zillow Research · retrieved
    Supports: An observed rent index of $1,591 for the city of Dallas in August 2026, up 0.63% from $1,581 a year earlier
  109. 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
  110. 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
  111. 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
  112. 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
  113. 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
  114. 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
  115. 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
  116. 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
  117. 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
  118. 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
  119. 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
  120. 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
  121. 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
  122. 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
  123. 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
  124. 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
  125. Annual estimates of the resident population for incorporated places, 2020 to 2025 · United States Census Bureau, Population Estimates Program · retrieved
    Supports: A population of 1,329,491 for Dallas on 1 July 2025, 1,245,355 of them in Dallas County, 54,266 in Collin, 29,865 in Denton, five in Rockwall and none in Kaufman, 3,638 in Cockrell Hill, 8,764 in Highland Park and 25,323 in University Park
  126. 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