Sky high

San Antonio rent prices climb above $1,000 per month, says new report

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San Antonio rent has climbed above $1,000 per month.

If you’ve found yourself a bit short on cash to splurge this year, we can serve up at least one possible reason. A new report from apartment website RentCafé indicates the average apartment rent in San Antonio has officially crossed the $1,000 mark.

Studying rents from December 2017 to December 2018, the report shows San Antonio rents climbed from $982 at the end of 2017 to $1,016 at the end of 2018. Despite a 3.5 percent increase year-over-year, San Antonio still had the lowest rent among the state’s five biggest cities, the report shows.

At 4.4 percent, Austin represented the biggest one-year jump among the five largest cities in Texas. During the 12 month span, the average apartment rent in Austin climbed from $1,304 to $1,361, RentCafé says. And in what should be a surprise to absolutely no one, Austin had the highest average rent of the state’s five biggest cities.

Looking at San Antonio's big-city counterparts in Texas, Fort Worth posted the next highest increase in rent during the one-year period — 3.8 percent. Residents of Cowtown saw their average rent go from $1,043 to $1,083, according to RentCafé.

In Dallas, the average rent crept up 2.7 percent, closing out 2017 at $1,151 and closing out 2018 at $1,182, RentCafé says.

Among the country’s 20 “mega-hubs” for renters, as characterized by RentCafé, the average rent in Houston inched up the least — 1.7 percent. Houston’s rent went from $1,075 in December 2017 to $1,093 in December 2018.

In the Houston suburb of Pearland, the average rent actually decreased during the yearlong period by one of the biggest percentages among more than 130 U.S. cities included in the report. The rent there slid 0.2 percent, landing at $1,275 in December 2018, according to RentCafé.

Nationally, the average apartment rent increased 3.1 percent over the past 12 months, from $1,377 to $1,419, RentCafé says.

“Healthy job creation, a robust economy, and positive demographic trends are promoting the formation of new households and stimulating demand for rentals,” Doug Ressler, director of business intelligence at Yardi Matrix, a sister business of RentCafé, says in a release.

Going forward, he adds, that will lead to low — and even declining — apartment vacancy rates in most markets.

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at least it's not utah

Texas is the 2nd worst state for women's equality, report says

Photo by Vonecia Carswell on Unsplash

Texas needs to work on closing many disparity gaps between men and women.

Texas, we have a major equality problem: The Lone Star State has ranked second from the bottom in WalletHub's new nationwide analysis of gender equality.

The personal finance website's annual "Best & Worst States for Women's Equality" report, published August 19, ranked Texas No. 49 out of all 50 states where where women receive the most equal treatment in the United States. Texas is accompanied in the bottom five by Utah (No. 50), Wyoming (No. 48), Idaho (No. 47), and Missouri (No. 46).

At the top of the list of the best states for women's equality is Hawaii (No. 1), followed by California (No. 2), Minnesota (No. 3), Maine (No. 4), and New Mexico (No. 5).

The study ranked each state based on 17 metrics in three key dimensions: Workplace environment, education and health, and political empowerment. Factors that were examined in the study include income disparity, job security disparity, the share of the population aged 25 and older with an advanced degree (higher than a bachelor's degree), and the disparity in the share of Congress members and other elected officials, among others.

Texas earned a miserable score of 39.75 points out of a possible 100. The state performed about average in the "workplace environment" equality rank, earning No. 23. But it fell far behind in the "political empowerment" ranking, scoring No. 40. The state landed at the bottom in the national comparison of "education and health" equality, ranking No. 49.

Texas' ranking may not come as a surprise for women living in San Antonio, where the gender pay gap in the city means men earn over $6,400 more than women. And somehow, this is one of the better metrics.

Here's how WalletHub broke down Texas' ranking, where No. 1 is the best and No. 25 is average:

No. 21 – Earnings Gap
No. 21 – Entrepreneurship Rate Gap
No. 22– Work Hours Gap
No. 32 – Executive Positions Gap
No. 40 – Unemployment Rate Gap
No. 40 – Political Representation Gap

Unfortunately, closing these disparity gaps in Texas (and elsewhere) isn't so simple, according to WalletHub analyst Cassandra Happe. She said it's going to take much more than "giving men and women the same fundamental rights" to ensure true equality.

"States also need to work to make sure that women receive equal treatment to men when it comes to financial opportunities, education, and politics," Happe says in the report. "The best states for women’s equality have drastically reduced the disparities between men and women on multiple fronts."

According to WalletHub, the best state for women's equality is Hawaii, earning a score of 79.24 points out of 100. Hawaii has the third smallest gap in work hours between men and women, and no gap in the rate of men and women who are minimum-wage workers. Furthermore, the state has an equal share of political representatives that are men and women in the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives.

Things aren't looking good for Texas from WalletHub's point of view; In another recent study, the personal finance website also determined that Texas is the No. 15 worst state to live in the U.S.

The full report and its methodology can be found on wallethub.com.

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