Lubbock Bucks National Trends with Continued Rent Hikes

While much of the U.S. has turned to rent cuts in recent months, apartment operators in Lubbock continue to push rates above historical norms. Nationally, apartment operators started to initiate rent cuts in September, after a long streak of record-breaking hikes. This trend continued in October and November, with the most recent decline coming in at 0.6%. Meanwhile, Lubbock operators – who did not resort to the steep price increases seen elsewhere in the nation in much of 2021 – kept pushing rates. In November 2022, rents in Lubbock were up by 0.5%. Annual rent change, therefore, continues to pace well ahead of this market’s historical average, with prices increasing 7.6% in the year-ending November. This is also ahead of national norms. Helping Lubbock remain stable, this small northwestern Texas college town has the nation’s highest concentration of Starting Out Singles, according to RealPage’s latest Renter Cohort Analysis. This is the youngest group of renters in the U.S., and they tend to rent smaller apartments and spend a bigger portion of their income on rent. Bringing all the young singles in is Texas Tech University, which in 2021 had an enrollment of over 40,000 students, up 0.7% for the year. Additionally, Texas Tech saw enrollment increase by over 4% in 2020, at a time when the 175 largest schools in the nation saw an average increase of just 0.6%.