Unlike the weather, Austin’s rental market is beginning to cool down + follow suit with the calming housing market.
While rising inflation and interest rates have caused housing prices to rise nationwide, Austin’s real estate market has been heated since 2020 and was further exacerbated by a lack of housing inventory.
But nothing lasts forever, and the Austin Board of Realtors announced the housing market was beginning to stabilize in July. Experts say the rental market tends to follow real estate trends on a few months delay, and we’re starting to see those impacts.
For the first time following 20 months of price hikes for renters, rent fell by 1% in August in Austin, as well as in 27 other big cities across the US. Austin’s drop in rental prices was the second-highest on the list, according to data from Apartment.com, sandwiched in-between Nashville at a 1.1% drop and San Francisco at a .9% dip.
Rental price growth in Austin is still up by 7.9% year-over-year, the 15th-highest on the list, but that’s not the highest in Texas. Year-over-year rental price growth in Dallas-Fort Worth is sitting at 9.6%, after a .1% drop between July and August.
Average Austin rental prices for Sept. 2022:
- Studio: $1,135, -25% compared to last year
- One bedroom: $1,532, +5% compared to last year
- Two bedroom: $1,895, +11% compared to last year
The dip is particularly pronounced in the Sun Belt — where rental prices soared the most over the course of the pandemic — with many cities from California, Florida, Arizona, and Texas on the list.
It’s unlikely that Austinites will immediately feel the effects of the cool down, but with dozens of multifamily developments under construction, the downturn suggests more affordable housing costs are on the horizon.
