RENTAL MARKET
Market snapshot Apartment rents are rising locally, though not as fast as they were in 2021.
Local rental rates continue climb Rents have continued to rise in the Greater Houston area in the rst half of 2022, driven by an to $1,452 in November 2021, they have increased to $1,492 in May. “We all knew this was going to slow down, temper itself back to more normal times,” McClenny said. McClenny said the Houston BY SHAWN ARRAJJ & LAURA ROBB
APARTMENT REPORT BREAKDOWN
Katy area Greater Houston area
Recently completed: 2,674 Under construction: 2,260 Proposed: 3,320
Recently completed: 22,340 Under construction: 14,498 Proposed: 33,996
$2,000 $1,500 $1,000 $500 $0
$1,492
$1,464
$1,452
$1,418
in ux of new residents to the area and a single-family home market that is pushing more people to consider renting. Those trends can be seen in the Katy-area data from ApartmentData. com—which spans from north of the city of Katy through south of the Cinco Ranch area, and from eastern Brookshire to Hwy. 6. Between February and May of 2022, average monthly rent prices in the Katy area rose 1.9%. That compares to an average rent price increase of 2.66% across the Greater Houston area over that time. However, the rate at which rents have been increasing so far in 2022 has been slower than the pace seen in 2021, ApartmentData.com Presi- dent Bruce McClenny said. Although average rents in the Katy submarket jumped from $1,232 in February 2021
$1,311
$1,233
$1,201
$1,179
metro area is still more a ordable than Dallas and Austin. Houston’s average rent hit $1,233 in May, which compares to $1,475 in Dallas and $1,648 in Austin. San Antonio has the cheapest average rent of the four cities at $1,193, according to ApartmentData.com. “That’s, in a relative sense, more positive for people that live here and want to live here,” McClenny said. Moving forward, McClenny said prices are likely to continue to rise. If rental rates were to drop, it likely would not be for desirable reasons, he said, giving job losses as an example. McClenny said Texas generally does a good job of adding apartment supply, but it still is not adding sup- ply fast enough to bring rents down.
$1,155
$1,092
MAY 2021
AUG. 2021
NOV. 2021
FEB. 2022 MAY 2022
100% 96% 92% 88% 84% 80% 0%
88.3% 90.9% 91.3% 90.9% 90.6% 90.1% 91.7% 91.7% 91.5% 91.4%
SOURCE: APARTMENTDATA.COM COMMUNITY IMPACT NEWSPAPER
“I don’t think it could add supply fast enough to make a di erence this year and next,” he said. According to McClenny, six- month apartment rental trends are
generally a good predictor of what the next six months could bring to the market. He also said that the market will probably settle down to some degree in 2023.
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COMMUNITY IMPACT NEWSPAPER • COMMUNITYIMPACT.COM
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