February 2018 rental performance repeated the prior month with a flat rent per sqft of 76¢. This is a penny under the 12-month average rent per sqft and, with the exception of December 2017, makes for a 5-month trend of flat, 76¢-per-square-foot rents as we compare the last quarter of 2017 and to the first quarter of 2018.
This overview utilizes NTREIS data on leased properties in Abilene, Texas. This data provides 13 months of data spanning February 2017 to February 2018, allowing the user to look across these months at changes in rental prices, days on market and inventory available town wide, both by school district and by ZIP code. The percentage changes calculated in this table compare the current month’s statistics to an average of the last 12-months and the data from the same month in the 2017.
79601 rents have trend up over the last 4 months. This data reveals November 2017 brought the worst news for rentals in the 79601 ZIP code. Not only did 79601 homes lease for a 13-month low of 64¢ per sqft in November, it took three, full months with no rent to finally ink a lease at that price. Since then, rents have trended up to 80¢ per sqft in the February 2018. As usual, lowest rents per sqft occur in ZIP code 79603.
Between January to February, Abilene ISD rents are down by 3¢/sqft while Wylie ISD rents are up by 10¢/sqft. Homes leased in February 2018 were older in both school districts, yet Wylie ISD rentals were able to overcome this and realize a gain in rent. February’s inventory of homes for sale average 2011 square feet and are 34 years old. Wylie rentals more closely mirror the market of homes currently for sale and this bolsters their leased price.
For the last three months, homes sat empty over 50 days before leasing. February rentals took 53 days to rent, matching the prior month and 16 days slower the average pace 37 days. Using average February rent, this translates to an additional annual loss of $515 for the landlord along with the first 30 days vacant that cost them $997.
This graph captures the pace at which homes lease. Historically, rentals languish in December and January while homes lease in less than a month in April through August. The most current three months have homes leasing a significantly slower pace than the monthly average. A growing supply of rentals are being felt not just in terms of flat rents, but also in terms of more days vacant.
According to NTREIS, 94 single-family homes leased in February 2018 which is 13 units above the annual average and 4 units above February 2017. These units leased at, on average, for 76¢/sqft and measured 1,331 square feet. Consequently, these leases are estimated to deliver a value of $95,347 to the Abilene economy in February 2018. Considering the coming 12 months and leases executed during February 2018, these leases potentially account for a $1,144,175 annual contribution to Abilene’s economy.
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