Austin outpaces U.S. in rate of rising rent

Let’s start with the good news: On the heels of a significant jump in October, rents in Austin remained relatively flat or even decreased slightly, depending on the report, in November.

According a report from real estate listings and research site Zumper, the median price of one-bedroom apartments grew only 0.8 percent, to $1,260, since October, while two-bedroom units remained flat at $1,570.

Zumper’s report, which covers 100 U.S. cities and uses data aggregated from its active listings, ranked Austin as the 28th most expensive city to rent in last month. Its national rent index finds the country’s one- and two-bedroom median rents both falling 0.3 percent last month, to $1,237 and $1,480, respectively.

Austin rent rate of growth compared to other U.S. cities

Apartment List, a similar site, also puts Austin median rent for November at lower numbers than Zumper’s, at $1,192 for a one-bedroom apartment and $1,471 for a two-bedroom—but also cites a relatively low rate of growth since last month (0.8 percent).

When viewed over longer periods of time, however, the Apartment List report finds the rate of Austin’s rent growth has consistently outpaced that of the country’s largest cities. According to AL, rents in Austin are up 3.2 percent over the past year, the fifth fastest growth rate among the nation’s large cities. The national rent index, by comparison, grew 1.4 percent over the past year.

Since 2014, moreover, rents in Austin have grown by 16.1 percent, far outpacing the national average of 11.3 percent growth since that time.

The report also ranks cities by growth rate, with cities in Arizona and Nevada leading the top 10 and Austin squarely in the middle, followed by Colorado Springs, Colorado; Nashville, Tennessee; and three spots in North Carolina.

Apartment List uses median rent statistics from the U.S. Census Bureau and its own listing data for its reports.