CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — Rent prices are going up, both for long-term living as well as short-term vacation rentals.
Those increases, however, don't appear to be deterring permanent residents.
"The increases in rent I believe is because of our property values have risen so much over the last two years," said Gary Graham, who's been operating a rental management company for more than three decades.
Graham said the average rent increase is around five percent.
But the number of renewals show the price increases are not discouraging residents and renters.
"We're also seeing people staying put too," Graham said. "They're not jumping around. They're renewing and we are picking up more units, but those units are being picked fairly quickly."
Graham estimates renewals are going up three-to-five percent and new leases up eight-to-12 percent. He said a softening real estate market is leading to owners renting than selling for less.
According to Zumper.com, rent among certain listings has increased by 15 percent.
Meanwhile, short-term rentals have also increased, according to Brett Oetting with Visit Corpus Christi.
"A lot of people started moving to the short-term rental condo, the rental home, where they're away from everybody else and it really blew up in Corpus Christi over the last two years," Oetting said. "So much so, that the actual number of available rentals is doubled since COVID, so we're around 3,000 rentals."
According to figures from Visit Corpus Christi, the average nightly rental is 238 dollars per night within the city, which roughly equates to six percent increase. That compares to $222 in Galveston and 297 dollars on South Padre Island.
Oetting said he expects more short-term rentals and increasing nightly rates.
"We've continued to have record numbers of attendance and overnight stays in Corpus Christi. We're continuing to see that there is an effort to try to be the first person to get in because there's just so much demand going on in Corpus Christi right now," Oetting said.