Austin’s monthly rent continues to decrease as the city leads the way in rent relief since costs peaked in 2022, according to a new report.
Newly released data from realtor.com shows monthly rent dropped more than 7% year-over year. As of Feb. 2026, the median asking rent was $1,357 for an apartment of any size. That is about $100 less than last year and $300 less than the peak of $1,659 in Sept. 2022.
Experts attribute the falling rents to an uptick in new apartments and a decrease in the number of people moving to Austin.
Joel Berner, an Austin-based senior economist with realtor.com, said rents in the Austin area surged in 2021 and 2022 as more people with flexible, remote work situations moved here. To accommodate the demand, developers started building.
“What happened was there was a lot more supply added to the market in the last couple of years and demand slowed down considerably,” Berner said. “We’ve seen a little bit of a slower migration into Austin in the last couple of years than we did during the post-pandemic moving frenzy of 2021 and 2022.”
Now, there are more vacancies, Berner said, which is a good thing for renters because they have choices and leverage to negotiate rent increases.
“If you’ve seen your own rent go up don’t be afraid to make a move, or at least threaten to make a move,” Berner said. “Because what we are seeing out there is that landlords are really looking for people to come and fill up some vacancies that we’ve got across the city right now.”
Professor Jake Wegmann, who studies affordable housing at the University of Texas at Austin, said rents falling is good news for all renters, including people who might be lower on the income scale.
“It does actually help people who can’t afford the median rent,” he said.
If market-rate rents are dropping, Wegmann said below-market rents are having to do the same, making it more affordable for those families.
He said landlords are also usually more open to renting to families with section 8 vouchers when prices drop.
Still, some affordable housing leaders, including Awais Azhar of HousingWorks, argue many people are struggling to afford living in Austin.
“That has a lot to do with incomes being flatlined, job insecurity, and there is of course a really high cost-of-living that we are dealing with at this moment,”Azhar said.
Walter Moreau, the executive director for affordable housing nonprofit Foundation Communities, agrees.
“It’s definitely gotten more affordable for families and households that make above $50,000 a year, but folks with really tight budgets are still really stretched,” Moreau said.
Studies have shown that many Austinites spend more than 30% of their income on housing costs, which could indicate affordability struggles.
Overall, rents in Austin are faring better than the nation as a whole. Nationally, the median rent is around $1,670 for an apartment of any size, marking a nearly 2% drop year-over-year.
This downslide of rent costs likely won’t last forever. Berner said that eventually the prices will level out.
“Eventually this is going to catch itself and [rent prices are] going to find its floor and start to tick up again,” he said. “I don’t think we are in a long-term position where rents are going to keep falling like this but for the short-term we are still in a renter-favorable market right now.”
