Rents lower in Austin area?

jlongino's picture
Submitted by jlongino on Mon, Jan 26 2009 - 5:33 PM

Apparently rents are coming down in the Austin area due to the construction increase and local layoffs. My lease was up in August, and the rent actually went up (MoPac and Ben White). What has everyone else seen in the area?

http://images.businessweek.com/ss/09/01/0122_rentdrops/15.htm

Comments

softwarejanitor's picture

I think rents may still go

Submitted by softwarejanitor on Mon, Jan 26 2009 - 6:39 PM.

I think rents may still go up for people who are already in an apartment, but maybe not as much as normally would. There appears to be a huge glut of apartments, condos and houses on the market right now. Even better for tenants/buyers (and worse for landlords/builders/sellers) is that there are huge numbers of apartments and condos in many areas that are nearing completion right now. What that usually means is that rents and prices will be more competitive, but that mostly only affects people who are in the market to move. In order to get a break as an existing tenant you may either have to move or at least threaten to do so. Another factor is going to be location -- areas that have a lot of new construction will tend to see more downward pressure, especially areas that are further out from where the jobs are and/or from UT and downtown. Obviously anywhere that is near UT or downtown will probably not be affected as much and rents for the same size place will typically be much higher.