AUSTIN, Texas — A new report has shown that rent across the City of Austin have increased in both month-to-month and year-over-year metrics.
In a new report from Zillow, the Austin area saw an increase of 3.3% in asking rent, increasing the amount to $1,816 per month in the Capital of the Lone Star State. The report also showed that rent increased month-to-month from January to February by 0.3%.
Now this rent increase is not exclusive to Austin - the asking price for rent rose across the country for the first time in five months. Compared to 2022, rent is 6.3% higher in the U.S.
Economists with Zillow do believe, however, that this increase could be the start of a "return to normal" with rent costs.
"Feb’s rent growth was much closer to the pace typically seen this time of year prior to the pandemic. If that continues, it would be a major relief for renters after last year's blistering pace of rent hikes," the report explained.
The report detailed that rates increased closer to the average pre-pandemic growth, with the monthly growth rate being 25-30 base points lower than the average.
The hypothesis within the report was that "if monthly rent growth for the rest of the year simply matches its pre-pandemic average growth rate in each month, the annual pace of growth would continue to decelerate" and result in a normal year of rent growth.
This is in comparison to the extreme rent hikes seen during 2022, where rents were increased by a record-high of 17% in February 2022.
Read the full report from Zillow.
Boomtown is KVUE's series covering the explosive growth in Central Texas. For more Boomtown stories, head to KVUE.com/Boomtown.