Never hesitant to ride a wave, Austin has been one of the cities at the forefront of the build-to-rent trend — new single-family home construction intended for tenants rather than buyers — in recent years.
A new RentCafe study finds Austin was one of the top 10 U.S. metro areas for single-family rentals built in 2022. Some 324 build-to-rent homes were completed the Austin area last year — causing it to jump three places in a year to achieve a 10-year high, according to the report. The apartment search website crunched numbers from companion data site Yardi Matrix for its analysis, looking at build-to-rent communities containing at least 50 single-family rentals.
Dallas was first in the rankings, contributing 2,800 single-family rentals to the 14,500 build-to-rent houses completed nationwide. Austin was the only other Texas city to nab a spot in the top 10 — not surprising, as it was ranked the second fastest growing city in the U.S. by the Kenan Institute of Private Enterprise, the study notes.
"The Texas capital's booming economy continually attracts talent from other costlier states," according to the report, "particularly California, which feeds the local rental market that can hardly keep up." Austin also had the seventh highest number of single-family rentals completed in the country within the last five years, totaling 1,096 units. There are currently 945 units are under construction in the metro area.
Phoenix ranked No. 2 on the 2022 list, with 1,527 units completed that year. Atlanta, Georgia, was No. 3, with 808; Greenville, South Carolina, came in fourth, with 584; and Charlotte, North Carolina, was fifth, with 475 units completed.
