Austin rents on the rise again

Austin apartment rents hit a record high in June, according to Saturday Austin American-Statesman article by Shonda Novak. Quoting figures from Charles Heimsath, president of local real estate research and market analysis firm Capitol Market Research, recently flat or declining rents reversed course, hitting an all-time high of $1,278 per month across all unit sizes in June. One-bedroom units averaged $1,114 a month and two-bedrooms came in at $1,410 a month on average, according to the study.

Heimsath credits local job growth for increasing occupancy, thereby allowing landlords to get higher rents, according to the daily. Novak also quotes national property management site Apartmentdata’s Southwest regional manager, Cindi Reed, who agrees rents in the area are on an upward trend.

What the other sites say

How do those numbers compare to those of other rental-data sources? While each differs and has its own sets of limitations, they can give us a sense of what’s happening across the city.

Apartment List

Listing site Apartment List (AL)’s numbers track by city limits, and unlike a lot of listing site data, its numbers are weighted with census data to compensate skewing toward luxury listings. It still attempts to track what a new renter or apartment-hunter could expect to pay for their pad, though, as opposed to what the typical renter is currently paying.

AL’s data shows a slight increase in Austin-area rents: A gain of 0.8 percent over the past and 0.6 percent year over year. in comparison to the same time last year. It puts median rents at $1,140 for a one-bedroom and $1,400 for a two-bedroom—identical to those given by Heimsath. The site also notes that this the fifth straight month of climbing rent preceded by a slowdown last year and in January. However, it notes that Austin’s year-over-year rent growth was less than state average of 2.1 percent, as well as the national average of 1.4 percent.

Rentcafé

Rentcafé, using data from Yardi Matrix, looks only at buildings with 50 units or more for its report. That helps verify the data pool, but skews the numbers toward larger buildings. It found similar numbers but fleshes out the details a bit: The average rent for an apartment in Austin is $1,294, according to the site’s data—a year-over-year increase of 1 percent, with studio apartments averaging $1,036, 1-one-bedrooms apartments asking $1,128 on average, and two-bedrooms fetching an average of $1,431.

Zumper and Adobo

Zumper, which can skew toward luxury listings, finds slightly different numbers: $1,190 for one-bedrooms, 0.8 percent over last month and 14.4 percent over last year, and $1,470 for a two-bedroom, showing no monthly increase but an 11.4 percent hike over last year.

Abodo puts Austin’s one-bedroom rent average at $1,153 and two-bedrooms at $1,445. Despite rent numbers in the range of the other reports, the site characterizes these as slight month-over-mont decreases, at -0.3 percent and -0.14 percent, respectively.

• Austin-area rents hit record high [AAS]