Emily Gauci scans apartment listings in Austin regularly, always on the hunt for a better deal on rent.

A 23-year-old communications manager, Gauci currently spends nearly half her monthly income on her $1,205 one-bedroom apartment in Northwest Austin, which leaves little money for anything else. Water is included, but she still has to foot the electric bill. Her boyfriend helps with groceries, and she has opted to shop for clothes at outlet stores to save money.

"I honestly have to sacrifice my savings every month, or the ability to save more than I currently do," Gauci said.

Gauci is one of an increasing number of Austin-area residents who in 2018 spent more than 35% of their monthly income on rent. More than 39 percent of rental units in the region cost more than a third of the household’s income, a percentage that increased by a statistically significant amount compared with the previous year, according to the latest American Community Survey results released Thursday by the U.S. Census Bureau.

The data continues to show a trend seen in years past in the Austin area: a soldiering economy supported by rising incomes and good job growth but plagued by growing affordability concerns and income inequality.

The poverty rate for the five-county metro area, which includes Travis, Williamson, Hays, Bastrop and Caldwell counties, rose for the first time in four years, from 10.4% in 2017 to 11.2% last year. The Census Bureau does not consider the increase statistically significant. However, it's something Austin demographer Ryan Robinson said is worth noting.

"Even though it’s not a big increase, it’s a change in direction," Robinson said. "That is something I think is significant."

The poverty rate for 18- to 64-year-olds did increase significantly in 2018, from 10.1% to 11%. The child poverty rate, which is often a good marker for judging disparities in cities, also increased, though not significantly.

The Austin metro area's overall poverty rate is still well below the state's 14.9% poverty rate, as well as the poverty rate for the nation, which fell in 2018 to 13.1%.

The survey released Thursday also shows Texas again topped the nation in the rate of people lacking health insurance, with the number increasing by 5 million people between 2017 and 2018. Among metro areas with at least 1 million people, San Antonio, Dallas-Fort Worth and Houston have the highest uninsured rates. The Austin metro area is not far behind. Its uninsured rate increased from 11.7% to 12.6% in 2018, which is not statistically significant but still well above the 8.9% national rate, results show.



The American Community Survey is based on live and online interviews conducted annually on more than 40 topics such as demographic makeup, household income, transportation and housing. For 2018, it included responses from 137,000 Texans.

For the seventh year running, the Austin metro area recorded a rise in its median household income, from $75,477 in 2017 to $76,925 in 2018, an increase of 1.9%. That's slower growth than in previous years, such as 2014, when median incomes rose by more than 5%. This mirrors the national trend. The median household income for the United States increased 0.8% to $61,937 in 2018, less than during the last two years of the Obama administration, when it grew by 3.2% and 2.5%, respectively.

"There is no question that overall prosperity here is among the best in the country and rising," said Jon Hockenyos, an Austin-based economist with the consulting firm TXP Inc. "But there are a significant number of people in Austin who are not experiencing the benefits of that but are in fact suffering from that, from the lack of affordability."

In Austin, home prices have been rising along with incomes, and the gap between the two is ever widening, Eldon Rude, local housing industry expert and principal of 360° Real Estate Analytics, has said. This has made it more difficult for people to buy a home. At the same time, rents also were at an all-time high this summer.



Texas is one of only nine states that saw a rise in income inequality in 2018, survey results show. Austin's income inequality rate is higher than the state's as a whole. In 2018, the average household income grew faster than the median household income, rising 2.7% from $102,727 to $105,512, which Hockneyos said is indicative that people at the higher end are doing better. The number of people earning $200,000 or more in Austin also increased significantly between 2017 and 2018, survey data show.

Hockneyos said these numbers are reflective of what is being seen in other parts of the country but that income inequality is "exacerbated in Austin" since it's one of the nation's hottest growth areas. The Austin metro area in 2018 was again the fastest-growing metro area in the country among those with populations of 1 million or more, according to Census Bureau figures released earlier this year.

"Austin is becoming increasingly more and more like a coastal city, where if you are a person who does not have a relatively high-paying job, the result of having substantial education and training, you are going to have a hard time making ends meet in the city," Hockneyos said. "We have people being left behind. That has become relatively evident in recent years."

But Robinson, the city's demographer, said it's possible Austin's rising poverty rate could actually be a good sign, indicating that poor residents are no longer being displaced at such a fast rate — a sign of the city's maturation. He said this is also reflected in population growth numbers from April, which show the metro area continuing to grow but more slowly.

"A few years ago, we were one of the only places creating well-paying jobs," Robinson said. "Things are still really vibrant in Austin, and our star is still shining very brightly. But in a relative sense, that shine is not as bright because every corner of the country is in better shape than it was five years ago."

Editor's note: This story has been corrected to say that Emily Gauci spends nearly half her monthly income on rent, not more than.