Texas’ capital city set records last month, topping the nation in new asking rent hikes since this time last year. The monthly rent for newly available apartments in Austin almost doubled since April 2021 — the highest year-over-year rise in the nation, according to a report by real estate listings and data site Redfin.
Median monthly rent in the metro area, which encompasses all or part of five counties, was $2,531 in April. That’s 46 percent higher than it was in the same month last year and the fastest such increase in the country. Austin was the only Texas city on Redfin’s top 10 U.S. metros with fastest year-over-year rent hikes. It was also the largest such increase for any city Redfin has reported since it started compiling rental data in 2019.
Coming in second on the list was Portland, Oregon, with a 33 percent year-over-year increase, followed by Miami, where rents were up 31 percent compared to April 2021. Nationally, median monthly rent rose 15 percent since April of last year, setting a record high of $1,962, but slowing down from a 17 percent year-over-year increase in March.
“Landlords in hot migration destinations like Austin, Portland and South Florida are charging new tenants 30 percent more than last year’s rent,” Redfin chief economist Daryl Fairweather.
Only three U.S. cities showed a year-over-year drop in rental asking price from April 2021: Milwaukee, Wisconsin (-8 percent); Kansas City, Missouri, -4 percent; and Minneapolis, Minnesota (-2 percent).
To compile the list, Redfin analyzed rent prices in the 50 largest U.S. metros, using data provided by its company RentPath for 20,000 apartment buildings. Prices in the report reflect the median cost of apartments that were available for new renters during the report month — not the median of what all renters are paying.