alt Hacker NewsAt a glance, I'm a bit skeptical. It looks like they're cherry picking the high point for rent (the COVID spike).
> "Rents fell. In December 2021, Austin’s median rent was $1,546, near its highest level ever and 15% higher than the U.S. median ($1,346)."
Of course having more housing should, all things equal, lower rent. But all things certainly weren't equal, especially during this time period.
Replies
Here's a chart that presents some context:
https://www.reddit.com/r/texas/comments/1grxqur/the_austin_t...
This appears to be a correction to an unsustainable market.
If you just compare it to other cities you can see that Austin did much better in prices.
Idk about rent, but even as of a year or two ago, Austin metro housing index was lower than its 2016 level. Rent following a similar trajectory wouldn't be super surprising to me.
You haven't factored in Inflation.
> In December 2021, Austin’s median rent was $1,546, near its highest level ever and 15% higher than the U.S. median ($1,346). By January 2026, Austin’s median rent had fallen to $1,296, 4% lower than that of the U.S. overall ($1,353).
For comparison, in San Francisco December 2021, the median one bedroom was $2810. In San Francisco March 2026, it was $3597, an increase of 28%.