{"id":371438,"date":"2026-07-13T18:59:11","date_gmt":"2026-07-13T18:59:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/371438\/"},"modified":"2026-07-13T18:59:11","modified_gmt":"2026-07-13T18:59:11","slug":"dallas-sees-texas-biggest-jump-in-cost-of-raising-kids","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/371438\/","title":{"rendered":"Dallas sees Texas’ biggest jump in cost of raising kids"},"content":{"rendered":"

Raising a child is not an easy or inexpensive feat, and a new study<\/a> has determined Dallas parents are saddled with the second-highest costs for childrearing in Texas, with expenses jumping higher than any other metro statewide since 2025.<\/p>\n

SmartAsset’s latest report, “Cost of Raising a Child in Major U.S. Metros \u2013 2026 Study,” calculated year-over-year changes in the annual cost of raising a child (factoring in childcare, additional housing costs, food, transportation, medical costs and other necessities) in the 48 largest U.S. metro areas. MIT’s Living Wage Calculator<\/a> was used to compare the living costs of a household with two working adults and one child to that of a childless household with two working adults.<\/p>\n

Childrearing costs in Dallas-Fort Worth have grown 4.5 percent since last year, totaling $23,340 for a family of three in 2026. That’s over $1,000 more<\/a> than what it took to raise a child in 2025, and it’s $1,414 higher than what it took in 2024<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This is how SmartAsset broke down the cost for raising a child in Dallas:<\/p>\n

Cost of childcare: $10,736Cost of food: $1,826Other expenses: $10,778<\/p>\n

Though Dallas has the second-steepest costs for raising a child in Texas, the metro is actually much more affordable than most other places in the U.S.: DFW ranked 39th in SmartAsset’s national list of cities with the highest childrearing costs in 2026, making it the 10th most affordable U.S. metro for raising a family.<\/p>\n

San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont in California topped the list with the highest childrearing costs in the U.S., at $43,171. The cost for raising a child in this California metro soared nearly 11 percent higher since last year.<\/p>\n

Memphis, Tennessee ranked dead last as the most affordable U.S. metro for raising a child in 2026. Families will spend less than $20,000 to raise a child in Memphis, only 3.24 percent more than what was needed in 2025.<\/p>\n

Raising a child in other Texas metros
It may come as no surprise that Austin is the most expensive place to raise a child in Texas, and it appeared as the 31st most expensive U.S. metro for families. Parents will spend nearly $25,000 to raise a child in the state’s capital city, which is $703 higher than it was a year ago.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, San Antonio-New Braunfels is the most affordable metro in the Lone Star State for raising a family, and it’s the third-most affordable place for raising a child nationwide. San Antonio parents will spend $21,393, or $448 more than last year, on their childrearing costs.<\/p>\n

Houston also ranked among the top 10 most affordable U.S. metros for raising a child, landing in 7th place nationally, with childrearing costs adding up to $22,605 in 2026. That’s only $737 more than last year.<\/p>\n

The top 10 most affordable U.S. metros for raising a child in 2026 are:<\/p>\n

No. 1 \u2013 Memphis, Tennessee ($19,922)No. 2 \u2013 Nashville, Davidson-Murfreesboro-Franklin, Tennessee ($21,216)No. 3 \u2013 San Antonio-New Braunfels ($21,393)No. 4 \u2013 Birmingham, Alabama ($21,684)No. 5 \u2013 Virginia Beach-Chesapeake-Norfolk, Virginia ($22,314)No. 6 \u2013 Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Roswell, Georgia ($22,470)No. 7 \u2013 Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands ($22,605)No. 8 \u2013 Richmond, Virginia ($22,658)No. 9 \u2013 Louisville\/Jefferson County, Kentucky ($23,270)No. 10 \u2013 Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington ($23,340)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Raising a child is not an easy or inexpensive feat, and a new study has determined Dallas parents…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":371439,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[150,102,104,103,541,116,27485,542,38187],"class_list":["post-371438","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-dallas","tag-arlington","tag-dallas","tag-dallas-headlines","tag-dallas-news","tag-family","tag-fort-worth","tag-livability","tag-reports","tag-smartasset"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/371438","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=371438"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/371438\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/371439"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=371438"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=371438"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=371438"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}