April 27, 2022

Austin Q4 Multifamily Market Insights: Rapid Economic Growth Fueling Transaction Activity

Highlights:

Austin’s strengthening economy and elevated renter demand continued to drive down vacancy rates and push rents higher in the final quarter of 2021. Improving conditions carried over to the investment market, where transaction activity gained momentum, prices rose, and cap rates remained low.
Vacancy dropped in each of the final three quarters of the year. During the fourth quarter, the rate fell 40 basis points to 5.3 percent. Vacancy tightened by 130 basis points year over year, reaching its lowest point since 2016.
The pace of rent growth accelerated in 2021, with the largest annual increase ever recorded for the region. In the past year, asking rents advanced 14.2 percent to $1,450 per month. In the final three months of the year, rents spiked 5.8 percent.
The local investment market strengthened at the end of 2021. The pace of apartment sales accelerated from the previous quarter, cap rates remained near 3.5 percent, and prices rose to nearly $208,000 per unit in transactions where pricing was available.