March 2018 Abilene Rent Report
March brought a better pace to leasing of single-family homes in Abilene. March 2018 available inventory leased in roughly 1 month, a 21-day improvement in pace when compared to February 2018.
This overview utilizes NTREIS data on leased properties in Abilene, Texas. This data provides 13 months of data spanning March 2017 to March 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.
All ZIP codes and school districts leased a faster pace when compared to their prior month. With the exception of homes in 79603, all ZIP codes and school districts saw a better pace on leasing when compared to the 12-month average. The 32 homes leased in 79605 were the most improved on the average; they leased in 26 days versus the 30 homes in 79605 leased during the prior month that found a tenant in 73 days. This performance is as anticipated; an average days-on-the-market for March over the last 5 years was 33 days. If past trends continue to be predictive, the days-on-the-market will continue to shrink over the next two months.
March 2018 brought additional good news with a 3 cent uptick in rent-per-square-foot when compared to February 2018. March rents represent an 8-month peak in rents that traveled around .76/sqft during the last quarter of 2017 and early 2018. 79602 and 79606 had best rents per square foot (.87/sf and .84/sf respectively), explain by the relative newness of these rentals compared to the average age of homes in other ZIP codes. 79603 had the lowest rent-per-square-foot at .61 cents and northside ZIP codes saw declining rents-per-square-foot.
The graph looks at rent-per-sqft from December 2012 through March 2018. This statistic has been adjusted for inflation so that real gains in rent can be considered for Abilene, Abilene ISD and Wylie ISD. AISD has seen a gain in rent of .000308 per sqft per month. WISD has seen a decline in rent per sqft per month of .0000229. Neither figure is cause for alarm - at these rates, it would take 32 months for AISD rents to gain a penny per sqft in rent and 436 months or 36 years for a rental in WISD to lose a penny per square foot in rent.
Pet deposits and security deposits fell slightly below their 12-month average, but with only 30% of the subject properties leased to pet owners, it does not appear that landlords are being concessionary with deposits or terms to strike a lease. March’s ratio of deposit-to-rent was 84% and, at 1 point off the average, underscores that landlords are not feeling concessionary when crafting leases.
According to NTREIS, 96 single-family homes leased in March 2018 which is 14 units above the annual average and 3 units above March 2017. These units leased at, on average, for 79¢/sqft and measured 1,327 square feet. Consequently, these leases are estimated to deliver a value of $100,640 to the Abilene economy in March 2018. Considering the coming 12 months and leases executed during March 2018, these leases potentially account for a $1,207,676 annual contribution to Abilene’s economy.
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