If your Austin apartment feels smaller, it may very well be, new report says
Austin renters are getting noticeably less space than they did a decade ago, even as the average national apartment size has trended up.
According to a new report from RentCafe.com, Austin lost more than 50 square feet in average apartment size in 10 years. Houston and Plano, meanwhile, saw barely any shrinkage — with decreases of less than 5 square feet, RentCafe said.
"Texas may be known for 'bigger is better,' but Arlington has seen the steepest drop in apartment size in the U.S.," according to a news release from RentCafe, a nationwide apartment search website and a part of Yardi.
"In just 10 years, the average apartment in the home of the Dallas Cowboys shrank by 215 square feet — enough space to accommodate an entire New York City micro-apartment, where the kitchen doubles as the living room," RentCafe said in a news release.
In Austin, several factors are behind the apartment size changes in the city's rental market, said Adina Dragos, the report's author and a RentCafe research analyst.
"There has been an increase in the share of studios and one-bedroom apartments compared to the decade before, while larger units like two-bedrooms have become less common," Dragos told the American-Statesman in an email. "What's more, the average size of all units has shrunk, leading to an overall trend of smaller living spaces.
"These changes are likely to reflect shifting renter preferences towards more desirable areas such as big job hubs, even if it means choosing a smaller living space. This is especially true for younger Millennials and Gen Z who often prioritize location and access to urban amenities over space."
Dragos explained that developers are adding more units to each floor plan to meet the needs of Austin's booming population and rapidly increasing demand for housing.
With square footage emerging as the new currency in the apartment market, RentCafe.com analyzed a decade of apartment data to see how much space renters in 100 U.S. cities are getting now compared with 10 years ago.
Austin's shrinking average apartment size bucks an upward national trend.
"Our annual analysis shows a significant shift in the U.S. rental landscape: the average size of new apartments expanded again in 2024, reversing a decade-long trend of shrinking floor plans," RentCafe said. "The most substantial space gains are appearing in several Coastal and Sunbelt cities, giving renters fresh options for more spacious living."
Other key takeaways:
The average apartment size in the U.S. increased in 2024, reaching 908 square feet, as most unit types expanded their living spaces.
Studios, one- and two-bedroom apartments got larger, adding between 4 square feet and 13 square feet to their floor plans.
Two Florida destinations, Tallahassee and Gainesville, claim gold and silver among the cities with the largest apartments.
Seattle holds on to its top spot as the city with the smallest apartment size in the U.S.
Apartments in San Francisco have expanded the most among large cities, gaining 59 square feet in the last decade compared with the previous one. It's followed by Queens, New York, where renters gained 39 square feet.
This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Austin apartments got smaller in size over the past 10 years.
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