Dallas, TX: A Top Local Market to Watch in 2027
Any way you measure it, the Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, TX, MSA, is one of the fastest-growing large markets in the electrical industry. With $4.7 billion in estimated sales potential the metro ranks only behind the Los Angeles and New York market. With a population increase of 809,741 new residents from 2020 to 2025, Dallas added more new residents during that five-year period than any other MSA, and last year had 202 new residents moving in each day.
Single-family permits were down -5.8% year-to-date through June 2026 compared to the same period last year, but homebuilders still pulled 21,588 permits for new single-family homes, second only to the Houston market. Dallas also saw a -7% decline in multi-family permits but the 11,631 permits that builders logged was second only to the New York metro.
Texas legislators have worked had to make their state very business-friendly toward data centers and the outskirts of the Dallas metro has been the beneficiary. DataBank’s campus in Red Oak, TX, south of Dallas will eventually be the home to eight data centers. Compass also has a big data center project expansion in Red Oak.
The two largest projects under construction in the Dallas area are the $5-billion Children’s Health UTSW pediatric campus in Dallas and the $4-billion renovation of Dallas-Fort Worth Airport’s Terminal F.
ESTIMATED ELECTRICAL SALES
2Q 2026 Total Sales Estimate: $4,708.6 million
2026 Electrical Contractor Est. ($ Millions): $2,920 million
2026 Estimated Industrial Sales: $846.9 million
POPULATION GROWTH
2025 Population Estimate: 8,477,157
2020-2025 Population # Change: 809,741
2020-2025 Population % Change: 10.6%
New Residents per day: 202
BUILDING PERMITS
June 2026 - Single-family (SF) permits: 21,588 permits
# Change SF YOY: (1,011) permits
% Change SF YOY: -4.5%
June 2026 -Multi-family (MF) permits: 11,631 permits
# Change MF YOY: (874)
% Change MF YOY: -7%
Electrical Wholesaling's Top 10 Local Markets to Watch gives you a taste of the mountain of electrical market sales estimates and other local market data available at Electrical Marketing newsletter for just $99 per year. This data includes:
- Local market sales estimates, building permits and population data for more than 300 other Metropolitan Statistical areas
- The Electrical Price Index (EPI) - A monthly compilation of pricing trends for more than 20 key electrical product groups
- Annual product sales estimates from 16 key electrical products
Sources of market data: Local market data collected by Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) and county. Sales estimates developed with sales-per-employee multipliers from Electrical Wholesaling’s Market Planning Guide ($83572 per electrical contractor employee and $2,7289 per industrial employee) and employment data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Building permit and population data downloaded from U.S. Census Bureau website.
About the Author
Jim Lucy
Editor-in-Chief
Over the past 40-plus years, hundreds of Jim’s articles have been published in Electrical Wholesaling and Electrical Marketing newsletter on topics such as the impact of new competitors on the electrical market’s channels of distribution, energy-efficient lighting and renewables, and local market economics. In addition to his published work, Jim regularly gives presentations on these topics to C-suite executives, industry groups and investment analysts.
He recently launched a new subscription-based data product for Electrical Marketing that offers electrical sales potential estimates and related market data for more than 300 metropolitan areas, and in 1999 he published his first book, “The Electrical Marketer’s Survival Guide” for electrical industry executives looking for an overview of key market trends.
While managing Electrical Wholesaling’s editorial operations, Jim and the publication’s staff won several Jesse H. Neal awards for editorial excellence, the highest honor in the business press, and numerous national and regional awards from the American Society of Business Press Editors. He has a master’s degree in Communications and a bachelor’s degree in Journalism from Glassboro State College, Glassboro, N.J. (now Rowan University).