The Austin TX rental market continues to do well overall. Rents are steadily rising for the third year in a row after falling for 4 straight years (2002 through 2005). Average rents for homes in Austin for July 2008 were $1,493 per month. Year to date the average rent is $1,425. the graph below shows nearly the past 10 years of Austin’s rental market and our ups and downs.
The rental market is helped now by the fact that fewer renters can qualify to purchase homes, which increases demand. The easy loans that renters were able to obtain from 2002 through 2007 are gone. You need a down payment and decent credit to buy a home now, as it should be.
The chart above shows the past decade of the ups and downs in Austin’s rental market. Despite three years of gains, the average and median rents are still lower than they were in 2000. Yes, that’s right, rents are lower still today than they were 8 years ago. Austin renters have had a great ride, while landlords have been nailed with higher property taxes, insurance costs and repair costs.
I just rented a home I own for $1,225 after an extensive remodel. I rented the same home, in average condition, for $1,325 in 2001. Rents are still very specific to location, price range and condition. We just rented a luxury home for $2,295 that rented for $2,495 a year ago. We simply did not have the number of showings needed to fetch the higher rent this time, and we disallowed large dogs.
Below are July rental stats chart and the year to date stats chart. I’ve added some color formatting to the charts this time. Green fields indicate numbers that are moving in a direction positive for landlords.