The 76005 ZIP code, home to part of the large Viridian master-planned community, had median household income of $191,250 in 2022.
ARLINGTON, Texas — Editor’s note: This article was originally published in the Dallas Business Journal here.
Move over, Highland Park.
You’ve been bumped down a notch on the list of North Texas’ top pockets of wealth by a neighborhood in a city better known for roller coasters, tailgate parties and auto workers than for mansions, McLarens and millionaires.
A ZIP code in Arlington — yes, Arlington — has overtaken Highland Park on Dallas Business Journal’s annual list of wealthiest neighborhoods in the Metroplex, based on median income.
The Tarrant County city of Southlake still ranks No. 1 on this year’s list, leading the way for the sixth year in a row. Colleyville, also in Tarrant County, held its ground at No. 2.
But north Arlington’s 76005 ZIP zoomed past the Dallas-encircled cities of Highland Park and University Park to occupy the No. 3 slot this year. It is the first time for the Arlington ZIP code, which is quickly being filled with new homes, to make the ranking.
While that rise in the rankings might surprise many longtime North Texans, Arlington Mayor Jim Ross isn’t one of them.
“It’s location, location, location,” said Ross, a proud 40-year resident of the city he now leads. “We are smack-dabbed in the heart of the Dallas-Fort Worth area.”
In addition to its central location — equally inconvenient to both Dallas and Fort Worth, as the bigger-city dwellers sometimes grumble — Arlington is home to the Dallas Cowboys, the Texas Rangers and Six Flags Over Texas. Nicknamed “The American Dream City,” Arlington serves as the headquarters of homebuilding giant D.R. Horton (tagline: “America’s Builder”). General Motors’ largest SUV factory is located in the city, employing more than 5,000 autoworkers who assemble vehicles such as the Chevrolet Tahoe, GMC Yukon and Cadillac Escalade. The ’burb also boasts a host of other global, domestic and family-owned businesses as well.
That’s all well and good for Arlington as a whole. But the specific driver of much of the wealth in Arlington’s 76005 postal zone is Viridian, a 2,000-acre master-planned active lifestyle community that’s spurred plenty of interest amongst Tarrant County residents.
Offering a connection to the outdoors, surrounded by five major lakes and 500 acres of open space, Viridian also provides relative proximity to retail, businesses and medical offices and it’s minutes away from Dallas Fort Worth International Airport.
Home to over 4,900 people and growing, residents are expected to make a median income of $191,250 or higher to live comfortably in the 76005 ZIP code, according to the Census Bureau’s latest 2022 data.
The Dallas Business Journal obtained the data from the 2022 American Community Survey’s five-year estimates of median household income in inflation-adjusted dollars.
Neighborhoods within Collin, Dallas, Denton and Tarrant Counties were included and they’re ranked based on median household income.
This year’s list features 200 ZIP codes, with data on median family income, per capita income, median home value and the percentage of adults age 25 and older with bachelor’s degrees.
Viridian rising
Dreamt up by twin brothers Donald and Phillip Huffines, grandsons of the famed auto dealer, Viridian broke ground in 2012, with development firm JCKPL LLC in the driver seat.
But it has endured a couple of economic cycles — ups and downs have been wilder than any Six Flags ride, between housing booms, the Covid pandemic and economic pressure triggered by interest rate swings, inflation and supply shortages.
Developers struggled work around the wet terrain that Viridian sits on, which is across the street from a landfill. Some in Arlington wondered if the project was sustainable in that kind of environment.
But with the persistence of Robert Kembel, JCKPL’s president, and the rest of the development team and builders, Viridian finally came to life. It was purchased in 2015 by Johnson Development Corp., a Houston-based residential and commercial land development company.
Viridian has routinely ranked among the country’s 50 top-selling new neighborhoods on lists by RCLCO, a national real estate data and consulting firm.
The $2 billion Viridian community offers a variety of housing types such as townhomes, single-family detached homes, zero-lot-line homes, 55-and-up active living, and custom homes. Prices range from about $370,000 to roughly $2 million, according to data from Redfin. As of February, Viridian’s median home price hovered around $491,000.
“People who have disposable income are finding [Viridian] and happen to like the flexibility that the location provides across the region,” Arlington City Manager Trey Yelverton said.
The wealth concentrating in 76005 helps build a “tax base for our future,” Yelverton said. But growth also means demand for more services, he added.
Arlington leaders hope to parlay the new wealth and real estate activity into more redevelopment to support community priorities. The city is short on vacant land, so its leaders would like to see fresh investment in areas including on the north side near Six Flags, near downtown, and near the University of Texas at Arlington campus.