Austin Rents just RESET

Austin rents just rewound to pre-pandemic levels.
Down 21% from the Summer 2022 peak.
$1,636/month → $1,288/month.
Yes, there are even 2BR units under $1,000 in some complexes.

So what happened?

Two forces collided at once:
Demand cooled. Migration slowed as remote-work hype faded and affordability finally mattered again.
Supply flooded the market. Years of aggressive multifamily development all delivered at the same time.
When demand pauses and supplies hits hard, pricing has only one direction to go.

The result?

Austin now has the cheapest rents on record relative to income.
That’s great news for renters, but it’s a wake-up call for investors who underwrote deals assuming perpetual rent growth. This is what normalization looks like after a speculative surge. The market didn’t “crash.” It corrected.
This is exactly why real estate cycles don’t reward optimism. They reward structure, margins, and patience.