March 15, 2019 | by Laura Ross
Categories: Rental Housing
A recent article on Housingwire.com addresses the change in rental costs across the country over the last year.
Citing two different sources, HotPads and Adobo, the article highlights the fact that a record $504.4 billion was spent nationwide on rent in 2018, an increase of $12.6 billion from the previous year.
HotPads breaks it down further, noting how much was spent in different cities and metro areas across the country. In Texas, $12.31 billion was spent on rent in Dallas in 2018. $4.2 billion was spent in Austin, $10.43 billion was spent in Houston, and $3.07 billion was spent in San Antonio.
The HotPads report also points out that while the total amount spent on rent has grown, the appreciation of rent per unit, or the rate at which rent is increasing, is gradually slowing down. The median rent nationwide is currently $1475 per month, an increase of only 3% from a year ago.
2018 saw a slight decrease in the number of households renting. The HotPads report surmises that with rents remaining steady, people have increasingly been able to save for a down payment in order to pursue homeownership.
HotPads dives further into the appreciation of rents, by breaking it out based on apartment size. In Texas, the average rent for a one-bedroom apartment was $897. Nationwide, Houston came in at 8th for cities seeing the biggest monthly increase to rent for one-bedroom units. In 2018, the average rent for a one-bedroom unit in Houston was $1241 with an average monthly increase of 1.63%.
According to Adobo, the median price for a two-bedroom apartment in 2018 was $1255, an increase of only $1 compared to the previous year. While statistics on the average 2-bedroom rent per state wasn’t made available in the report, Houston once again found itself in the list of cities with the highest monthly increase to rent for two-bedroom units. Ranked 9th, Houston had an average rent of $1487 with an average monthly increase of 1.84%.
At the other end of the spectrum, the Texas city of Richardson found itself in the top 10 cities with the biggest monthly decrease in rental costs for a 2-bedroom unit. Ranked 7th, Richardson had an average rent in 2018 was $1527 and saw an average monthly decrease of 1.41%.
Adobo also broke out what cities had the highest and lowest rents on average for a 1-bedroom apartment. Lubbock is the only Texas city to grace either list, ranking at #8 in the lowest average rent for a one-bedroom at $585.
On the House blog posts are meant to provide general information on various housing-related issues, research and programs. We are not liable for any errors or inaccuracies in the information provided by blog sources. Furthermore, this blog is not legal advice and should not be used as a substitute for legal advice from a licensed professional attorney.
TSAHC reviews all blog comments before they are posted to ensure a positive experience for our online community. Off-topic comments; hostile, derogatory or deliberately insulting comments; and comments specifically promoting goods and services will not be posted.
Approved comments will be published in their entirety. Personal information will not be removed unless it pertains to someone other than the person submitting the comment. For more information, please see our Comment Posting Guidelines.
To remove a previously submitted and published comment, please contact Anna Orendain at [email protected].
If you have a question regarding any of TSAHC's programs, please contact us.
