Fort Worth Yields Top 9.8%, Nearly Double the Median

Yields across 65 suburbs in Fort Worth (Tarrant County) range from 9.8% in Stockyards/North Side (76164) down to under 4% in premium inner and western areas. That spread is wider than the gap between short-term rental and long-term rental at the city level, which means where you buy matters more than how you rent it out. This ranking shows which suburbs lead on gross yield and explains why the pattern exists.

Fort Worth's city-median 3-bed house sells for around $333,450 and rents for roughly $1,669 a month, producing a gross rental yield of 6.0%. That sits near the Texas state median of 6.1% and above the US national median of 5.3%, but the city average hides a yield spread of more than five percentage points across neighborhoods. The ranking below is based on 3-bed house medians, sorted by long-term rental gross yield.

Stockyards/North Side (76164) Leads at 9.8%, with the Top Five All Above 8%

Gross yields = annual income / sale price. Based on 3-bed house medians. The dashboard shows every property type and bedroom count.

Warning: Short-term rental figures apply only where legally permitted. Short-term rentals heavily restricted in Fort Worth. Investment properties generally not permitted; may require owner occupancy, specific zoning, or other conditions (permit required, $150). Fort Worth prohibits short-term rentals in all residential zoning districts. Short-term rentals are only allowed in commercial, mixed-use, and industrial zones with registration ($150 initial, $100 renewal). Court upheld the ban in March 2025. Maximum 9 guests, with a 3-per-bedroom limit. Hotel occupancy tax collection is required. Fort Worth has not replicated the Dallas single-family ban, but operators should verify zoning and permit rules in their specific ZIP before modelling short-term rental income.

Entry Price Drives the Top of the Ranking

The top three Fort Worth yielders share one feature: affordable entry prices, not exceptional rents. Stockyards/North Side (76164) sells for around $200,000, roughly 40% below the Fort Worth median of $333,450. Rent of $1,627 a month is also below the city average, but it does not fall as far as price does. That asymmetry is the yield engine. The area sits just north of downtown, wrapped around the historic Stockyards tourism precinct, with a working-class housing stock that has resisted the price inflation seen in gentrified inner neighborhoods.

Watauga/Haltom City (76148) at 9.4% reflects a different pattern: northeast Tarrant County suburbia where post-war ranch housing still trades below $270,000 but commands family rents of $2,111 a month thanks to DFW airport commuter demand and Keller/Birdville school catchments bleeding into the ZIP. This is a long-term rental suburb, not a short-term rental play. Tenants tend to be stable, multi-year renters, and turnover risk is low.

South Fort Worth (76115) and Southeast Fort Worth (76119) both yield around 8.7% by being the cheapest 3-bed inventory in the metro core. Entry prices sit near $177,500 and $205,000 respectively. Both are close-in south and southeast Fort Worth neighborhoods within striking distance of downtown, the medical district, and TCU. Rents are modest in absolute dollars, but the price point means the yield math works. These ZIPs are also more exposed to vacancy and tenant-quality risk than the outer suburbs, which is part of why prices stay low.

The Yield-Price Trade-Off Is Stark in Fort Worth

The inverse relationship between price and yield is more pronounced here than the Texas state average. An investor entering at $200,000 in Stockyards/North Side (76164) versus $333,450 at the Fort Worth median faces an entirely different capital-risk profile. Cheaper suburbs yield more because rent does not fall as fast as price. Premium suburbs yield less because buyers pay for school catchments, lot size, and capital growth, not current income.

Across Fort Worth, 3-bed house prices run from $177,500 to $1,317,000. The dashboard shows an almost mirror-image rent distribution: rents compress toward the top end far faster than prices do. That is the fundamental reason yield-chasing investors cluster around the $200,000 to $293,750 band rather than the premium suburbs.

High-Demand Suburbs for Context

For context, here is how some of Fort Worth's most in-demand suburbs compare. These are established neighborhoods where investors typically accept lower yields in exchange for capital growth, liquidity, and tenant quality.

High-demand suburbs for context. Same methodology as the yield ranking above.

These premium ZIPs yield less on long-term rental because buyers are pricing in capital growth, school access, and lifestyle amenity, not rent-to-price ratios. The short-term rental column sometimes changes the picture, particularly in neighborhoods close to the Stockyards, Sundance Square, or TCU game-weekend demand, but Fort Worth's limited tourism base compared to Austin or San Antonio keeps short-term rental ceilings relatively modest across most of the premium ring.

Yield Tables Do Not Capture Capital Growth or Vacancy Risk

The ranking is honest about what it measures and silent about what it does not. Yield equals rent divided by price, so a high yield can mean depressed prices rather than exceptional rents. Several of the top-five ZIPs sit in neighborhoods where appreciation has historically lagged the premium Fort Worth suburbs by two to three percentage points a year. Over a 10-year hold, a premium suburb yielding 3% to 4% with stronger price growth can deliver a better total return than a 9.8% yielder with flat prices.

Vacancy risk is the second blind spot. High-yield suburbs often have thinner rental pools, tenants on tighter budgets, and longer re-let times between leases. The median shown is for tenanted properties; it cannot capture days-on-market or arrears. The third caveat is data age. Fort Worth is one of the fastest-growing metros in the US, and ZIP-level medians can lag real-time asking rents by a quarter or two.

View Fort Worth in the dashboard → Free preview · every bedroom count and property type

Fort Worth's Top Suburbs Beat the State and National Averages Comfortably

At 9.8%, Stockyards/North Side (76164) sits well above the Texas state median of 6.1% and the US national median of 5.3%. Even the fifth-ranked suburb at 8.6% clears both benchmarks. The premium inner suburbs in the second table fall below state average and in some cases below national average, confirming that Fort Worth is a metro where the yield story is concentrated in specific ZIPs rather than distributed evenly. Investors who accept the city median of 6.0% are leaving roughly 300 to 400 basis points of annual yield on the table relative to a targeted Stockyards/North Side (76164) or Watauga/Haltom City (76148) purchase.

The Short-Term Rental Regulatory Overhang Still Matters

Fort Worth itself has not enacted a Dallas-style single-family residential ban on short-term rental, but the regulatory situation across Tarrant and Dallas counties is unsettled. Short-term rentals heavily restricted in Fort Worth. Investment properties generally not permitted; may require owner occupancy, specific zoning, or other conditions (permit required, $150). Fort Worth prohibits short-term rentals in all residential zoning districts. Short-term rentals are only allowed in commercial, mixed-use, and industrial zones with registration ($150 initial, $100 renewal). Court upheld the ban in March 2025. Maximum 9 guests, with a 3-per-bedroom limit. Hotel occupancy tax collection is required. Investors modelling short-term rental returns in any of the ranked suburbs should verify current zoning and permit requirements at the specific address before closing. A blocked ordinance can be reinstated on appeal, and a short-term rental thesis that only works at full-tourism occupancy is vulnerable to regulatory tightening. For a more permissive comparison, rural Texas counties outside Dallas-Fort Worth continue to operate under state-preemption protection with no city-level bans.

For context on how regulatory risk reshapes yield rankings in other markets, Dallas Short-Term Rentals Gross 80% More, but Costs Narrow the Gap covers the same question in neighbouring Dallas County. The dashboard applies the same methodology to every city so comparisons stay apples-to-apples.

These are city- and ZIP-level medians. Individual properties diverge significantly: a 2-bed apartment in Stockyards/North Side (76164) will yield differently from the 3-bed house median shown here, and within any ZIP there is a two-to-three percentage point yield band around the median. Explore rental data in the dashboard to see suburb-level data for every bedroom count and property type, including net yield after property tax, insurance, and management. See the market score methodology and data sources for how these numbers are calculated.

Data reflects market conditions as of April 2026.

This information is for educational purposes only and should not be considered financial or legal advice. Regulations and market conditions change frequently. Verify current rules with local authorities before making investment decisions.