Austin Evictions Surge Despite Falling Rents

Austin landlords filed a record 13,210 eviction cases in Travis County in 2024, according to BASTA, a tenant organizing group that tracks court records. The increase came even as Austin’s rent measures continued to move lower into 2026, with multiple market trackers reporting year-over-year declines. The mismatch has drawn attention because Austin has become a national example of rents easing after a construction boom. Housing researchers and local advocates say the people most exposed to eviction are often renters who were already on the edge of missing payments before prices started to cool. ### How high did eviction filings get in Travis County? BASTA reported 13,210 eviction filings in Travis County in 2024, up about 25% to 26% from 2023, depending on the roundup cited by local outlets using the group’s data. The organization says its database is drawn from Travis County court records and updates daily through its public dashboard. (kut.org) A September 2025 presentation posted on the City of Austin’s document system said the countywide eviction filing rate in 2024 was 4.5% and that the typical case lasted 20 days. The same presentation said 84% of cases were resolved in less than 30 days. Princeton University’s Eviction Lab said Austin landlords filed 30% more eviction notices last year than the post-pandemic average, the largest spike among the 38 cities in its tracking system, according to Governing’s May 8 report. (kut.org) ### If rents are down, what do the latest numbers show? Apartment List said Austin’s median rent stood at $1,307 in May 2026, roughly flat from the prior month and down 5.6% from a year earlier. (services.austintexas.gov) The firm listed one-bedroom median rent at $1,158 and two-bedroom median rent at $1,409. Realtor.com data cited by KUT showed Austin’s median asking rent was $1,357 in February 2026, down more than 7% from a year earlier and about $300 below the September 2022 peak of $1,659. (governing.com) Zillow’s rental market page, updated May 12, put the average Austin rent at $1,950, down $90 from a year earlier. Pew said Austin’s median rent fell from $1,546 in December 2021 to $1,296 in January 2026 after the city added 120,000 homes from 2015 to 2024. (apartmentlist.com) Pew also said rents in older Class C buildings fell about 11%, and rents in buildings with 50 or more units fell 7% from 2023 to 2024. (kut.org) ### Why are more tenants still ending up in eviction court? Aabiya Baqai, research and policy director at BASTA, told Governing there is no single explanation, but low-income tenants remain vulnerable to even small financial shocks. She said a death in the family or another disruption can leave renters unable to pay on time. (pew.org) Walter Moreau, executive director of Foundation Communities, told KUT that falling rents have helped households making above $50,000 a year more than renters on tighter budgets. Awais Azhar of HousingWorks told KUT that flat incomes, job insecurity and broader living costs are still squeezing many households. (governing.com) Judge Sylvia Holmes, who hears eviction cases in southwest Travis County, told KUT in March 2025 that many tenants she sees fall behind after an emergency expense such as a car repair. “And then there’s sort of a spiral,” Holmes said. ### Are the filings concentrated in any part of the county? BASTA’s September 2025 presentation said eviction filings were shifting toward the outskirts of Travis County and that some of the highest filing-rate tracts were tied to top-filing properties. (kut.org) The presentation said District 3 saw a 40% increase from the prior year and District 4 saw a 30% increase, with four of the county’s 10 top-evicting properties located in District 4. (kut.org) The same presentation said no top-evicting property had a filing rate below 20% and that some properties filed at least one eviction for every five households. It also said tax-exempt private partnership properties posted a 5.7% filing rate, compared with 4.5% across all rental properties countywide. ### What changed for eviction cases in 2026? (services.austintexas.gov) Texas Senate Bill 38 was signed by Governor Greg Abbott on June 20, 2025, and applies to eviction suits filed on or after January 1, 2026, according to legislative text and legal summaries describing the update. The law rewrote parts of the state’s eviction process, including rules around possession-only proceedings and court procedure. (services.austintexas.gov) BASTA’s dashboard remains live and updates daily, and the group’s 2024 snapshot is the latest annual county report linked on its site. The next public read on whether 2026 filings are still climbing will come from that dashboard and future court-record summaries from BASTA and local news outlets that track the data. (bastaaustin.org) (legiscan.com)