Rental analysis website RentCafe has identified Houston as the Texas rental market that heated up the most during 2022’s peak rental season.

The site used Yardi Systems apartment data to analyze Texas’ rental markets, examining five factors: days of vacancy, percentage of occupancy, number of prospective renters per apartment, percentage of renewed leases and percentage of new apartment construction completed in 2022.

According to RentCafe’s report, over 60% of renters in Houston are renewing their leases into 2023. Despite the large amount of new apartment construction increasing rental inventory in the Bayou City, Houston’s apartment occupancy remained at nearly 94% during peak season (defined by RentCafe as May through August).

Additionally, Houston’s rental market became 60.3% more competitive during peak rental season, the highest increase in rental activity throughout all of Texas. In the first part of the year, apartments stayed vacant for an average of 37 days in Houston — but during peak rental season, that number dropped to an average of only 32 days. That’s tight competition for the average of 12 prospective renters vying for each vacant apartment during peak rental season in Houston.

Despite these statistics, Houston’s rental market is still slightly less competitive than it was heading into 2022.

El Paso was the most competitive rental market in 2022, with over 96% of apartments occupied and only a 0.7% increase in inventory throughout the year.