Moving on Up
It's cheaper than you'd think to snag a bigger Austin apartment
Feeling cramped in your tiny Austin apartment? You're not alone — and it might be worth it to splurge on more space. According to a new report from RentCafé, it's surprisingly economical for Austinites to upgrade from a studio apartment to a one-bedroom unit.
The listing website looked at data from the 25 most populous cities in the U.S. to compare the average rent price and square footage of studios and one-bedroom apartments.
Austin has the fifth cheapest rent increase from a studio to a one-bedroom unit. On average, local renters dish out an additional $118 per month to move on up, and, in return, they get an additional 234 square feet of space.
The Capital City offers the best bang for your buck among the Texas cities studied. You'll have to pay more to upgrade in Fort Worth ($123), Dallas ($125), San Antonio ($161), and Houston ($176), and you won't get as much space as in Austin. The only exception is El Paso, where the monthly rent goes up by $166, but the apartment size increases by 252 square feet.
The jump in rent is a lot steeper when you move from one bedroom to two, locally and across the country. In Austin, renters cough up an extra $316 per month — the 10th most expensive increase — to gain 332 square feet of space.
