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Fort Worth could see a 21% return on investment if the $10 million housing bond passes in the May 2 general election, according to Texas economist Ray Perryman.
Perryman, CEO of The Perryman Group, was speaking at the Housing Summit sponsored by Partnership Home on April 29. He said a study of similar-sized cities — Austin and San Antonio — indicated that once the housing is in place and in use, communities receive about 21% return in annual local tax revenue.
“If you spend $10 million, you get back $2.1 million every year,” he said. “You’re getting a 21% return on your money perpetually. That’s not bad.”
Fort Worth residents will consider approving $10 million for affordable housing, as part of the city’s $845 million bond program that goes before voters in the May 2 election.
Proposition D authorizes the sale of $10 million in general obligation debt for affordable housing.
The money could be used to plan and build projects ranging from repairs to improvements or complete replacement of existing housing. City staff would select the projects, teaming with public and private partners as the opportunities arise, and forward them to Fort Worth City Council for final approval.
Austin and San Antonio passed larger housing bonds, Perryman said. San Antonio passed a $150 million housing bond in 2022 and Austin passed a $350 million that same year.
But even Fort Worth’s modest amount should make a difference, he said.
“This is based on the actual experience that these communities have had,” he said. “There’s not a whole lot of investments out there that can pretty comfortably give you 21% return on your investment. To me, that says it makes sense.”
Perryman said this type of housing is key to economic development for an area.
“Part of the currency of economic development right now is workers,” he said. “If you have workers, you’re going to be successful. If you don’t have housing that workers can afford, it’s gonna be very difficult to keep and retain those workers in a community. They’re really joined at the hip with doing economic development successfully on a sustainable basis.”
The recent spate of tariff actions has helped cause an economic disruption that has impacted the housing market, Perryman said.
It has cost the economy about 20,000 jobs a month and increased the cost of many items, he said. In housing, it has particularly had an impact on many of the products used in housing construction, such as lumber, steel, aluminum and glass.
“All these things are subject to pretty heavy tariffs right now, and that’s the stuff that goes into housing,” Perryman said.
Despite some of these issues, Perryman said Fort Worth is sitting in a sweet spot in terms of economic development.
“If you look at the big growth industries in the country right now, advanced manufacturing, a lot of the things surrounding AI and data centers, financial services, life sciences, if you look at the industries that are really, really driving things for the future, Fort Worth is very well situated,” he said.
Bob Francis is business editor at the Fort Worth Report. Contact him at bob.francis@fortworthreport.org.
Disclosure: The Fort Worth Report was a sponsor of the Housing Summit. At the Report, news decisions are made independently of our board members and financial supporters. Read more about our editorial independence policy here.
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