Rent Forecast
Austin's rapidly rising rent prices show no signs of slowing down

The rent may still be too damn high, but at least its ascent is slowing a bit. That's what Zillow says in its 2016 Rent Forecast, which states that rent appreciation should level off to an annual rate of 1.1 percent nationally.
In Austin, we're not as lucky. Still considered a hot market, Austin also shows up in the top 10 metros forecasted to have the highest rent increase, tying for No. 8 with Sacramento (3.4 percent).
This means that the median rent here at the end of 2015 was $1,683 and is expected to increase to $1,741 over the next 12 months. Nationally, the median rent at the end of 2015 was $1,381 and is expected to increase slightly to $1,396 by December 2016.
“Hot markets are still going to be hot in 2016, but rents won’t rise as quickly as they have been,” said Zillow chief economist Dr. Svenja Gudell in a release. “The slowdown in rental appreciation will provide some relief for renters who’ve been seeing their rents rise dramatically every single year for the past few years. However, the situation remains tough on the ground: Rents are still rising and renters are struggling to keep up.”
Renters are especially struggling in San Jose (7.8 percent), Buffalo (7.4 percent), and San Francisco (5.9 percent), where people often pay 40 percent of their income to rent.