Austin Apartment Rates Among Nation's Most Expensive: Report

AUSTIN, TX — The rent is too darn high. That's essentially the conclusion of a new December rent report for Austin that tracked growth, median prices and market trends.

Apartment List researchers tracked various metrics in finding the cities with highest rents. The upshot: Austin has the sixth-fastest growth rate among the nation's large cities — outpacing the national rent index by more than double.

Here are some of the report's highlights for Austin:

• Rents in Austin are up 3.1 percent over the past year, the #6 fastest growth rate among the nation's large cities. For comparison, our national rent index grew by just 1.4 percent over the past year.
• Since 2014, rents in Austin have grown by 15.9 percent, outpacing the national average of 11.3 percent.
• The median rent for a 2-bedroom apartment in Austin is currently $1,470 compared to the national average of $1,191.

Read the full report.

• Although Austin rents remained flat over the past month, they have increased by 3.1% year-over-year. This year-over-year rent growth has outpaced both the Texas average (1.5%) and the national average (1.4%).
• Currently, median rents in Austin stand at $1,191 for a one-bedroom apartment and $1,470 for a two-bedroom.

• Of the largest 10 cities that we have data for in Texas, all of them have seen rent prices rise. However, Austin still logs the highest year-over-year rent growth and comes in as the most expensive of all major Texas cities.
• Dallas, Plano, and Arlington have all seen year-over-year rent growth above the state average (2.2%, 2.1%, and 2.0%, respectively).

The above chart shows how Austin compares to other large cities across the country. Although median rent prices are in the middle, the city's year-over-year rent growth is much higher than the others.