AUSTIN, Texas — Good news for renters in Austin – the market was not as competitive as last year.
According to RentCafe, the number of renters competing for an apartment went down to seven this year when compared to 12 in 2022.
The occupancy rate for apartments is 93% – down nearly two points from last year.
Despite the market cooling down a bit, apartments still fly off the market faster than the national average, RentCafe said. However, Austin didn’t rank among Texas’s top three most competitive rental markets in 2023, largely because it had one of the highest shares of new apartments in the country.
According to the report, vacation rentals in Austin were filled after just 36 days. By comparison, the average apartment in the U.S. became occupied after 38 days.
While seven would-be renters competed for each vacant apartment in the Austin area, the national average was nine renters. The report showed that securing a new place in the Austin area remained challenging, because 55% of apartment dwellers in the area renewed their leases.
Austin’s ranking in the apartment website’s competitiveness index was affected by its high share of new apartments, at 3.3% – one of the highest among the markets analyzed.
According to the report, Miami was the hottest rental market nationwide in 2023, followed by North Jersey and Milwaukee.
At the regional level, the Midwest was the most competitive region for renting this year, with three of its markets making the top five nationwide, RentCafe said.
Read the full report on the RentCafe website.
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