Austin TX Rental Market 2005 Summary

Austin TX Rental Market 2005 Summary

The rental Market for Single family homes in Austin continued it’s trend of the past 4 to 5 years of over-all declining rents, lower rents per square foot rates, and increased days on market. The rental market for single family homes in Austin continues to be over-supplied even as the Austin economy is doing well, residential sales are brisk, home prices are rising, and the multi-family rental market is improving.

There are not yet enough Austin renters to lease all of the homes being made available by out-of-state investors. It remains a renter’s market for single family homes in Austin. I believe a turnaround will come, but it didn’t happen in 2005. As I tell every new real estate investor I meet, you’re not buying in Austin for cash flow unless you have at least 20% cash downpayment (and even 20% might barely get you break-even before vacancy loss and repairs). Instead, you are anticipating healthy value appreciation in the Austin real estate market during the next 5 to 10 years as Austin goes through our next growth cycle.

Let’s look at some leasing statistics below from the Austin MLS.

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