Austin Real Estate – Rental Market Update Feb 2007

The Austin Rental Market continues to show steady improvement for landlords. Average and Median rents for single family homes are up about 5% from Feb of last year. Median Days on Market dropped 7.8% to 47 days, meaning half of all homes leased through the Austin MLS took longer than 47 days, and half took less than 47 days to lease.

I do suspect, however, that good Austin Property Managers and Landlords achieve better results than what my stats show. For example, Sylvia and I purchased another investment home last month in Oak Hill (built in 1973, none of our investors wanted it so we jumped on it ourselves). I stuck a sign in the yard and Sylvia showed the first person who called that day and we leased it before it even got entered into the MLS.

The overall stats I report don’t have the benefit of that favorable outcome included, since the home leased immediately from the first sign call. And I’m sure this happens with other well priced homes in good locations as well. On the other hand, many homes that lease through the Austin MLS are represented by inexpeienced Realtors who don’t really know how to lease homes, and those listings (which are often the ones showing 90+ days on market) skew the rest of the stats to make things look worse as well. Of the Austin Property Managers I stay in touch with, all are raising rents on renewal and, for the most part, leasing their homes quickly – especially in the closer in areas that we recommend to investors.

I’m still not including Year-to-Date stats since we’re too early in the year for those to be meaningful, but I have once again republished the 2006/2005 year end stats.

Austin Leasing Stats Feb 2007
Previous Month and Year Comparison
All MLS Areas - Houses Only

 
Jan 2007
Feb 2007
Feb 2006
Yr % Change
# Leased
594
606
601
1%
Avg List Price
$1239
$1262
$1207
4.6%
Median List Price
$1150
$1150
$1100
4.5%
Avg Leased Price
$1235
$1250
$1194
4.7%
Med Leased Price
$1145
$1150
$1095
5.0%
Avg Size SQFT
1876
1834
1818
1%
Median SQFT
1771
1766
1732
2%
Avg $ per SQFT
$0.66
$0.68
$0.66
3%
Avg Days on Mkt
61
61
60
1.7%
Median Days on Mkt
50
47
51
-7.8%

Below are the previous years charts and graph.


Austin Leasing 2005/ 2006 Comparison
All MLS Areas - Houses Only

 
All 2006
All 2005
Yr % Change
# Leased
8042
5949
35%
Avg List Price
$1268
$1249
1.4%
Median List Price
$1150
$1150
0
Avg Leased Price
$1256
$1237
1.4%
Med Leased Price
$1150
$1150
0
Avg Size SQFT
1850
1806
2.4%
Median SQFT
1750
1701
2.9%
Avg $ per SQFT
$0.68
$0.68
0
Avg Days on Mkt
54
60
-10%
Median Days on Mkt
43
48
-10%

Austin Rental Market Graph 1999-2006

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