{"id":242969,"date":"2026-04-10T02:46:16","date_gmt":"2026-04-10T02:46:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/242969\/"},"modified":"2026-04-10T02:46:16","modified_gmt":"2026-04-10T02:46:16","slug":"rents-were-rising-in-austin-texas-how-the-city-brought-them-down","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/242969\/","title":{"rendered":"Rents were rising in Austin, Texas. How the city brought them down"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">AUSTIN, Texas (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.newsnationnow.com\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:NewsNation;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;NewsNation&quot;}\" class=\"link \">NewsNation<\/a>) \u2014 Amid nationwide inflation and rising costs, Austin, Texas, has managed to lower rents by using a combination of housing construction and expanding the criteria for mixed-use buildings.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">According to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pew.org\/en\/research-and-analysis\/articles\/2026\/03\/18\/austins-surge-of-new-housing-construction-drove-down-rents\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Pew Research;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;Pew Research&quot;}\" class=\"link \">Pew Research<\/a>, rents decreased 4% in Austin and its surrounding suburbs from 2021 to 2025.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Part of that can be attributed to the city\u2019s strategy of encouraging affordable housing and offering density bonuses for the construction of taller buildings with more units.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\"><a class=\"link \" href=\"https:\/\/www.newsnationnow.com\/business\/your-money\/ap-us-postal-service-to-suspend-employer-payments-to-workers-pensions-citing-cash-crunch\/?ipid=promo-link-block1\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:US Postal Service to suspend employer pay to workers\u2019 pensions, citing cash crunch;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;US Postal Service to suspend employer pay to workers\u2019 pensions, citing cash crunch&quot;}\"> US Postal Service to suspend employer pay to workers\u2019 pensions, citing cash crunch <\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">A growing body of research in recent years shows that stringent local restrictions on what kinds of homes can be built and where, known as zoning regulations, ultimately limit the overall number of homes and thus contribute to higher costs<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Relaxing those regulations, research shows, helps cities add more homes and contain housing costs.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">\u201cRenters in areas where construction has boomed are in a sweet spot right now. Affordability is improving as rents fall and wages rise, and there is increased choice with more and more new apartment buildings opening,\u201d Redfin Senior Economist Sheharyar Bokhari said in a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.kxan.com\/news\/housing\/report-austin-tops-list-of-largest-rent-dips-year-over-year\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:news release in 2024;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;news release in 2024&quot;}\" class=\"link \">news release in 2024<\/a>. \u201cAs construction starts to slow, rents will eventually tick back up, but 2025 is shaping up as a renter\u2019s market with potential for the affordability gap between buying and renting to widen.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Nearly half of Austin residents rent their homes, amounting to one of the highest rentership rates nationwide, according to rent.com.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Copyright 2026 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.newsnationnow.com\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to NewsNation.;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to NewsNation.&quot;}\" class=\"link \"> For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to NewsNation. <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"AUSTIN, Texas (NewsNation) \u2014 Amid nationwide inflation and rising costs, Austin, Texas, has managed to lower rents by&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":242970,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[1500,132,134,133,92917,80260,92916,92918,27],"class_list":["post-242969","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-austin","tag-affordable-housing","tag-austin","tag-austin-headlines","tag-austin-news","tag-housing-construction","tag-housing-costs","tag-pew-research","tag-surrounding-suburbs","tag-texas"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242969","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=242969"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242969\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/242970"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=242969"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=242969"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=242969"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}