Quote:
Originally Posted by JoninATX
My friends mom was paying $650 for her one bedroom apartment in north Austin last year, and now shes paying nearly $900 a month thats outrageous. I also agree even if Austin population starts to slow it will take several years for Austin to catch up where it needs to be.
|
Right now kind of reminds me of the 1990's when I was 18. In the early 90's the vacancy rate fell to 3.6% and when I was 18 I could not find a two bedroom anywhere between North Loop an Ben White for less than $800. I ended up paying $850 for this horrible -HORRIBLE!- dump of a house in Hyde Park. But at that age all I needed was a bed, with enough of a roof to keep the bed dry, and a shower (that occasionally had hot water, lol). I don't know if that house is still there or not, but I'd be amazed. It was a disaster. But fun. =) In the end I couldn't afford the place and only stayed there a few months before moving back home and then going off to LA for college. The place I moved into in Santa Monica my sophomore year at UCLA was cheaper and nicer (which isn't saying much) than the place I had in Hyde Park and was only like a mile from the beach.
But Austin has always been crazy expensive. Its really nothing new. At least now they are building more apartments. I read somewhere that between 1990 and 1993 they only allowed 70 multifamily units to be built in the greater Austin area (that was 4 counties then). Apparently the NIMBYism was crazy back then and they just wouldn't give out the permits for anything multifamily at all. Or very rarely, and it was always a major battle to get them. Which I imagine is why Austin has always been so expensive. Between 1990 and 2000 the average rent for an apartment in Austin went from $410 to $763. Yikes!
http://www.caction.org/CAN-Research/...es/Housing.pdf
http://www.caction.org/housing/Throu...veSummary.html