Apartment rents continue to rise in Texas, and in San Antonio the increase is seven percent more than last year, which makes it more difficult to afford to live in the city. That is according to a new national rental report from the online rental marketplace Zumper.
Despite rent increases showing small improvements from month to month, overall prices are still on the high side from the previous year. For example, the average rent for a two-room apartment in San Antonio is $1,430 now, in March 2023, which is a 1.4 percent decrease from last month, but a 4.4 percent increase from 2022. The average rent for a one-bedroom is $1,160, which is only a 0.90 percent increase month over -month, but a whopping 7.4 per cent increase from last year.
The report looked at rental data from more than one million active listings in the top 100 U.S. cities to determine the rankings. Zumper ranked San Antonio the No. 66 most expensive rental market across the country in February 2023, up three places from the previous report.
The report attributes these recent rent increase trends to the country’s rising inflation rate and unpredictable economy. Although the unemployment rate is low (less than 3.4 percent), potential home buyers are sidelined with rising interest rates. This creates more competition among tenants across the country.
“Many markets continue to either normalize or correct following the sharp increases in rents in 2021 [and 2022] in the zero interest rate [and] The QE environment we went through,” Zumper CEO Anthemos Georgiades said in the report. “With interest rates expected to rise further in 2023, we expect a continued slowdown in rent increases as new household formations freeze or at least are postponed.”
Much higher up the list than San Antonio is its central Texas neighbor Austincomes in as No. 25 most expensive rental market, which is an increase of two places from a previous report. The average rent for a one-bedroom apartment stayed relatively flat last month, at $1,670, but is still 7.7 percent higher than last year. Two-bedroom apartments saw a higher year-over-year increase of 8.4 percent, with average rents at $2,070.
Several cities in the DFW metro area also made the list, as well Houston (No. 51) and El Paso (No. 95). Special, Irving (no. 34) is experiencing a rent increase of almost 15 per cent from year to year for both one- and two-room apartments.
The nine total Texas cities that made the list include:
- No. 25 – Austin
- No. 34 – Irving
- No. 36 – Dallas
- No. 40 – Plano
- No. 51 – Houston
- No. 55—Fort Worth
- No. 66 – San Antonio
- No. 67—Arlington
- No. 95 – El Paso
The full data from Zumper’s National Rent Report can be found at zumper.com.
