By:  Mario Mancini

Dallas has emerged as a new financial hub, second only to New York in the number of finance workers, as Wall Street firms strategically seek cost-effective leases and lower-wage workers. Amid the pandemic, Dallas-Fort Worth, now the country’s fourth-largest metro, has surpassed cities like Chicago and Los Angeles, securing its position as the second-best location for finance jobs, according to Bloomberg.

Three major New York City banks — Goldman Sachs, Wells Fargo, and Bank of America — are seizing the opportunity to expand their presence in Dallas, capitalizing on the surge of people relocating to fast-growing states during the pandemic. The appeal lies in the significantly lower cost of living, approximately 40% less than in New York, making it an attractive destination for both companies and employees, NY Post summarized.

Financial analysts and investment professionals in Dallas earn an average of $102,000 per year, nearly 30% less than their counterparts in New York. The discrepancy in average salaries is also influenced by the types of jobs prevalent in Texas, where a higher proportion involves back-office operations such as engineering, customer service, and loan processing.

Goldman Sachs exemplifies this trend with the groundbreaking of a $500 million, 815,000-square-foot campus in the trendy Victory Park neighborhood, just outside downtown Dallas. The project, scheduled to open in 2027, received $18 million in tax breaks from the city of Dallas. This investment underscores Dallas’ rising significance, with Goldman Sachs highlighting it as the bank’s second-largest office in the Americas, outside of its global headquarters in New York City.

Wells Fargo is set to further bolster Dallas with a new $500 million campus in Irving, a suburb about 12 miles outside the city. The 850,000-square-foot North Texas hub, supported by over $30 million in tax breaks, is slated to open by the end of 2026. Meanwhile, Bank of America recently held a groundbreaking ceremony for a 30-story high-rise, emphasizing the advantages of Dallas’ central location and quality of living.

Dallas-Fort Worth now hosts over 380,000 finance professionals, making it the second-largest finance job hotspot in the country. Although it remains behind New York, which employs 809,000 people in the industry, finance firms occupy 28 million square feet of office space in the Dallas area, making it the second-largest finance hub in terms of office space, according to Cushman and Wakefield.

The trend extends beyond major banks, as smaller financial firms relocate to Dallas. Charles Schwab, overseeing more than $7 trillion in assets, moved its headquarters from San Francisco to Westlake, Texas, approximately 32 miles from Dallas, after acquiring TD Ameritrade in 2020. Additionally, Los Angeles-based Canyon Partners and Atalaya Capital Management have opened offices in Dallas, reflecting the growing dispersion of talent in asset management and hedge funds to the region.

The shift toward Dallas as a financial center, accelerated by the remote work trend during the pandemic, underscores the city’s rising prominence.