Methodology
Every number in the Index is computed directly from transaction records using the rules on this page. Nothing is estimated, modeled, or extrapolated. When a segment has too few transactions to be reliable, it is suppressed rather than published.
Statistics are computed from closed residential lease transactions recorded in the North Texas MLS, synced continuously and covering Dallas, Tarrant, Collin, and Denton counties. Because these are completed leases — not asking prices — the figures reflect what tenants actually agreed to pay and how long homes actually took to lease. Attribution: based on information from the North Texas Real Estate Information Systems, Inc., for the period stated on each report.
- Residential lease closings only: single-family homes, townhouses, condominiums, duplexes, apartments, triplexes, and quadruplexes. Commercial, office, retail, and land leases are excluded.
- Lease must have closed within the report quarter, based on the recorded close date.
- Days on market must be between 0 and 365. Records with missing or implausible values are excluded.
- Monthly rent must be between $400 and $50,000. Records outside that range are treated as data errors and excluded.
- Records with invalid or future close dates are excluded.
- Median achieved rent — the median closed lease price. Medians are used instead of averages throughout because rental prices are right-skewed and medians resist outliers.
- Median time to lease — median days on market for closed leases.
- Achieved vs. asking — the difference between the median closed price and the median final asking price of the same leases.
- Leased at or above asking — the share of closed leases whose final price was at or above the final asking price.
- Median rent per square foot — computed only for records with recorded living area of at least 250 sq ft.
- Quarter-over-quarter changes — computed against the same statistic for the immediately preceding quarter using identical rules.
- Metro, county, and bedroom-level figures are published only with at least 5 qualifying transactions; in practice these segments contain hundreds to thousands.
- City tables include only cities with at least 100 closed leases in the quarter.
- Segments below threshold are suppressed, never estimated.
- The data covers leases completed through the MLS. Off-market rentals — including many individually-owned properties leased without an agent and most large apartment communities — are not captured. The sample skews toward single-family homes, townhomes, and condos marketed by agents, which is also the inventory most relevant to individual rental owners.
- Days on market reflects the listing period recorded in the MLS and may understate total vacancy (make-ready time before listing is not captured).
- Concessions (free weeks, waived fees) are not consistently recorded and are not reflected in lease prices.
- City groupings follow the city name recorded on the listing.
All statistics are computed deterministically by the same pipeline each quarter. Narrative commentary is drafted from the computed figures and reviewed and approved by Blue Atlas Realty staff before publication. Reports are not modified after publication; corrections, if ever needed, are noted on the affected report.
Cite as: "Blue Atlas Realty, DFW Rental Performance Index, [quarter]." Journalists and researchers may request underlying aggregates or custom cuts at [email protected].