AUSTIN, Texas – If you’re looking for an apartment here in Central Texas, you may be pleasantly surprised to see that rent prices have actually gone down. 

Austin realtor Olivia Vale with Roots Residential Group joins FOX 7 Austin’s John Krinjak to discuss in this FOX 7 Focus. 

JOHN KRINJAK: So tell us about what we’re seeing here. How big of a drop are we actually seeing in the price to rent an apartment?

OLIVIA VALE: Yeah. So, on average, we’re seeing about a 10% decrease from last year. And keep in mind that over the pandemic, both rents and home prices skyrocketed. And that’s because of supply and demand and, of course, a number of economic factors. Right now we’re getting relief. And we’re at the lighter side of that bubble, which is great news. The caveat here is that not all rent prices are dropping in the same way, in the same locations. So the closer you are to downtown, you’ll see a more robust, healthy rental market when you get further out. Suburbs, new builds. We’re seeing those rent prices come down, whereas, you know, older homes in more established neighborhoods, those are more robust. And we’re seeing, you know, more of a flat level there. 

JOHN KRINJAK: So from what you’re seeing, what do you think is behind this drop in rent prices? 

OLIVIA VALE: Yeah. So a lot of it is supply and demand. We don’t have the tens of thousands of people moving here, ready to rent kind of anything that they see online before even seeing in person. So, you know, there’s a lot more available. And that goes for when you’re buying a home, too. There’s a lot of availability right now.

READ MORE

JOHN KRINJAK: All right. So let’s set up two scenarios here. If you’re looking for a new apartment, you’re looking to leave where you are now, find a new apartment. Hopefully, take advantage of some of these savings. What advice would you have for people?

OLIVIA VALE: Yeah, I would say with any apartment hunting, of course, with home buying and selling, you can use a realtor. A lot of people don’t know that a realtor is available for you to use. You don’t have to pay them personally. We get a bit of commission from the landlord. A realtor has years of knowledge about the housing market they can advise you on. You know what a landlord may be looking for and an application fee.

JOHN KRINJAK: So on the other end of it, if you’re looking, you like your apartment, you’re looking to stay where you are, but you’re looking around and seeing the prices go down. But your landlord wants to keep your rent the same or raise it, and you don’t think that’s fair. What steps can you take there?

OLIVIA VALE: I think that almost unequivocally, across the board, no one should be raising their rent this year. We saw a huge jump in rents this year. You know, we’re actually at a level where rents were in 2021. So if your landlord is raising your rent levels past 2023, you know, that’s a sign to get in touch with the realtor, have them run rental comps on what rental places have closed in your neighborhood in the last six months or so, and then armed with that information, you can go to your landlord and say, look, you don’t have justifiable basis to raise my rent.

JOHN KRINJAK: And I guess the question everyone’s kind of afraid to ask, do you think this is going to continue?

OLIVIA VALE: I think we’ve kind of leveled off. We can see that rents did go up ever so slightly. Just May, April, May. So I think the adjustment is where we’re kind of over that hump now.

MORE FOX 7 FOCUS

JOHN KRINJAK: And so we talked a lot about renting, but if you’re looking to buy a home or a condo, are you seeing similar patterns with the real estate market as we are with rent prices? Are those prices coming down too?

OLIVIA VALE: Marginally. So definitely from the highs in 2022, we’ve come down a little bit. If you are a buyer right now, we’re seeing 30% more homes inventory wise than we were last year. So the world is your oyster. If you’re a buyer in Austin, you should be able to negotiate. You should be able to get, maybe points on your mortgage paid by the seller. You have a lot of leverage.

JOHN KRINJAK: What should you do if you’re a seller? Is it just a bad time to sell, or is it a little bit more nuanced than that?

OLIVIA VALE: It’s a little more nuanced. I mean, everything is so localized in this market, you see huge differences between neighborhoods. So when you’re a seller, you have to adjust your expectations, know that your home is going to be on the market for longer. Do those extra things to your home, spiff it up, make it look great. And then have an experienced realtor give you a fair, realistic idea of what you can actually sell your home for.

JOHN KRINJAK: All right. Olivia Vale, realtor here in Austin. Olivia, thanks so much for being here. We appreciate you.

OLIVIA VALE: You’re so welcome. Thank you for having me.