renter report
Houston home to No. 2 biggest drop in rent prices in U.S. since last year
Houston nearly topped the list with the second-biggest year-over-year decline in rent prices nationwide.
A new Zumper rent report has revealed that Texas is leading the nation in annual rent declines since 2025, and Houston rent prices have fallen as much as 14 percent since last August.
Zumper's monthly report analyzes one- and two-bedroom rent prices from the previous month across 100 U.S. cities, and tracks one-month and year-over-year changes.
Austin, Houston, and Dallas, respectively, locked out the top three cities where one-bedroom rent prices have plummeted more than anywhere else in the country.
A one-bedroom apartment in Houston had a $1,050 monthly rent price in August, down 14.6 percent since this time last year. Two-bedroom units were 5.4 percent cheaper than they were a year ago and now sit at $1,400 per month.
The reports findings show a similar pattern across Texas' biggest metros as "elevated multifamily supply" was "absorbed through the boom years." Renters currently have the advantageous opportunity to negotiate lower rent from their landlords, according to Zumper CEO Shawn Mullahy.
"Texas is showing exactly what happens when supply materially outruns demand," Mullahy said. "Austin, Houston and Dallas added enormous amounts of inventory, and renters now have leverage because owners are competing to fill it. That won’t reverse until enough of that supply is absorbed."
For comparison, Zumper's National Rent Index for August 2026 found the median one-bedroom rent fell 0.1 percent year-over-year to $1,515, while two-bedroom rent increased 0.5 percent to $1,907
Rent prices across Texas
Austin tops the U.S. with the steepest decline in both one- and two-bedroom rent prices in August. A one-bedroom unit in Texas' capital city had a $1,260 monthly price, down 16.6 percent from August 2025. Rent for a two-bedroom unit declined even further, by 19.1 percent, to $1,610 per month.
One-bedroom apartments in Dallas weren't far behind. Rent for a single-bedroom unit dipped 13 percent year-over-year to $1,270, and the price for a two-bedroom unit fell 13.4 percent to $1,810.
Elsewhere in the North Texas region, rent prices for a one-bedroom unit in Plano have dipped 7.1 percent since last year to $1,310. Single-bedroom units in Irving are renting for $1,210 a month, or 4.7 percent lower than they were the year before.
In Fort Worth and Arlington, one-bedroom units had a monthly asking price of $1,160 and $1,080 in August. Arlington's one-bedroom rent price is unchanged from 2025, and Fort Worth's is down 3.3 percent.
This is how much it cost for a two-bedroom unit across DFW in August, compared to the previous year:
- Plano: $1,920 per month, down 3.5 percent
- Irving: $1,620 per month, down 4.7 percent
- Fort Worth: $1,530 per month, down 5.5 percent
- Arlington: $1,460 per month, down 2.8 percent
