Archive for July 26th, 2010
Austin Texas Apartment Prices Drop for Fall!!
Summer is finally over and Apartment communities that maintained 90-100% occupancy levels throughout the summer have now been bombarded with new fall and winter time notices to vacate. Apartment communities pre-lease apartments based on their notices to vacate which are usually given 60-90 days out from the resident’s move date or lease end date.
Most long term tenants are being pushed out of their apartments with rental increases up to $200. Many of my clients recently call me discouraged stating that they have been a perfect resident for 5 years or more and don’t understand why their apartment community is so anxious to “stick it to them” when it comes time to renew their leases.
The first question I ask them is how much they are paying currently IE; a client we’ll call Leslie that I am helping move currently. Leslie told me that she is paying $625 for a 740sf apartment in a community she has lived at for 5 years and is only 7 years old, and they want to raise her rent to $725. The first thing I told her was that the community wanted to raise her rent $100 due to the fact that since she leased there 5 yrs ago the market had completely changed. Unfortunately the only people that view long term occupants at an apartment community as an asset are the occupants themselves.
The truth of the matter is that Leslie and many others around Austin whom of which have been exemplary tenants are being viewed as a loss to their apartment communities. With a shortage of available apartments in Austin the market has changed. For example 5 years ago in South Austin you could get a nice apartment at an A class property for between 6-$700. Now you cant even get near an A class property in South Austin for less than $900 and that would be for a 1 bedroom apartment. Availability pushes pricing. If a guy has 50 apartments available they lower prices and offer up a massive upfront concession ie; 1 month free 2 months free etc. But when a management company looks down and sees that they are 96% full which has been the case most of this summer and historically most summers then their rates rise to the market rates (the highest rates they can charge for a particular unit). Long term residents are being viewed as a loss and therefore pushed out. Read the rest of this entry »
