West Campus rent did not rise at one rate
One 2400 Nueces promotion turns an apparent 20.8% price cut into a 2.5% increase. West Campus rents followed many different paths.
Research cutoff: . Prices, budgets and results keep their own dates.
In this investigation
One missing promotion can turn an apparent 20.8% rent cut into a 2.5% increase. For a 2400 Nueces 4×4, the 2020–21 base installment was $1,231, but a contemporaneous $280 promotion brought the advertised offer to $951. The next year’s base was $975.
I wouldn’t use one West Campus rent-growth percentage to judge a lease. The recovered prices show substantial increases at some buildings, declines at others and different answers when fees, occupancy, signing date and contract year change. Here’s what the comparisons can tell you.
The same floor plan can still come with a different deal
The 1,388-square-foot furnished 4×4 at 2400 Nueces started at $899 per person per installment in October 2014. November’s page showed $910 and marked it unavailable. Against the 2026–27 twelve-payment rate of $1,141, that’s a 26.9% or 25.4% rise depending on the archival date. Against the 2024–25 rate of $1,065, the ten-year rise is 17.0–18.5%. Utilities, furnishing choices and contract terms also changed. [2][3][34][35]
The comparison table includes older Quarters layouts with quoted rises of 42.1%–55.2%. Those newer prices are Total Monthly Leasing Prices for 2027–28, while the earlier amounts were per-bedroom quotes. Their fee split, occupancy allocation and upgrades aren’t fully reconciled. Don’t average them into an index of identical rooms.
| Building / layout | Early published quote | Latest published amount | Change in quoted amount | Comparability limits |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2400 Nueces, furnished 4×4 (1,388 sq ft) | $899; Oct. 9, 2014 | $1,141; 2026–27, 12 payments | +26.9% | Lease year unconfirmed in 2014; utility cap then versus all utilities now; optional premiums and furnishings differ. |
| 1883 at Cameron, B1 (836 sq ft) | $915; 2014-11-12 | $1325; 2027-28 | +44.8% | Historic per-bedroom rent versus current Total Monthly Leasing Price; fee split, occupancy allocation and upgrades not fully reconciled. |
| Quarters Sterling House, B1 (836 sq ft) | $915; 2014-11-03 | $1419; 2027-28 | +55.1% | Historic per-bedroom rent versus current Total Monthly Leasing Price; fee split, occupancy allocation and upgrades not fully reconciled. |
| Quarters Nueces House, B1 (772 sq ft) | $940; 2014-11-08 | $1459; 2027-28 | +55.2% | Historic per-bedroom rent versus current Total Monthly Leasing Price; fee split, occupancy allocation and upgrades not fully reconciled. |
| Quarters Grayson House, C3 (1134 sq ft) | $935; 2015-11-12 | $1329; 2027-28 | +42.1% | Historic per-bedroom rent versus current Total Monthly Leasing Price; fee split, occupancy allocation and upgrades not fully reconciled. |
The discount disappeared before the old rate table did
The $951 promotion was an advertised offer, not proof that every tenant paid it. Its contemporaneous page described a monthly, per-person discount for August 2020 through July 2021. A January 2022 copy of the old rate table omitted that footnote. [4][5][6]
A price history needs the offer and its terms. A lease comparison needs those too. Ask for the concession’s eligibility rules, the payments it reduces and what happens if you leave early.
| Published offer | Dollars per person per installment |
|---|---|
| 2020–21 posted base | 1231 |
| 2020–21 advertised promotion | 951 |
| 2021–22 posted base | 975 |
One owner produced three different price paths
ACC’s filings report base rental revenue per occupied bed, which includes the mix of contracts and concessions producing revenue. Between 2014 and 2021, 26 West rose 24.6%, The Block fell 1.5%, and Texan & Vintage rose 23.1%. A fixed-capacity-weighted combination rose 10.0% while consumer prices rose 14.5%, a 3.9% real decline. It had reached a 15.6% nominal increase by 2019 before falling. [7][8][9]
These histories predate Blackstone’s August 2022 acquisition, so they can’t measure its effect. They also aren’t matched room quotes or proof that shared management or software has no pricing effect. The point is narrower: sharing an owner didn’t produce a single rent path. [39]
| Property or portfolio | 2014 ($/occupied bed) | 2021 ($/occupied bed) | Nominal change (%) | CPI-adjusted change (%) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 26 West | 839 | 1045 | 24.55 | 8.82 |
| The Block (8-building portfolio) | 884 | 871 | -1.47 | -13.92 |
| Texan & Vintage (2-property portfolio) | 824 | 1014 | 23.06 | 7.51 |
| Year | Property or benchmark | Index (2014 = 100) | Revenue ($/occupied bed) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2014 | 26 West | 100 | 839 |
| 2015 | 26 West | 105.72 | 887 |
| 2016 | 26 West | 111.80 | 938 |
| 2017 | 26 West | 117.28 | 984 |
| 2018 | 26 West | 120.86 | 1014 |
| 2019 | 26 West | 123.12 | 1033 |
| 2020 | 26 West | 123.84 | 1039 |
| 2021 | 26 West | 124.55 | 1045 |
| 2014 | The Block (8-building portfolio) | 100 | 884 |
| 2015 | The Block (8-building portfolio) | 102.15 | 903 |
| 2016 | The Block (8-building portfolio) | 106.33 | 940 |
| 2017 | The Block (8-building portfolio) | 108.48 | 959 |
| 2018 | The Block (8-building portfolio) | 111.54 | 986 |
| 2019 | The Block (8-building portfolio) | 110.29 | 975 |
| 2020 | The Block (8-building portfolio) | 106.90 | 945 |
| 2021 | The Block (8-building portfolio) | 98.53 | 871 |
| 2014 | Texan & Vintage (2-property portfolio) | 100 | 824 |
| 2015 | Texan & Vintage (2-property portfolio) | 104.73 | 863 |
| 2016 | Texan & Vintage (2-property portfolio) | 108.98 | 898 |
| 2017 | Texan & Vintage (2-property portfolio) | 112.62 | 928 |
| 2018 | Texan & Vintage (2-property portfolio) | 116.26 | 958 |
| 2019 | Texan & Vintage (2-property portfolio) | 119.05 | 981 |
| 2020 | Texan & Vintage (2-property portfolio) | 120.51 | 993 |
| 2021 | Texan & Vintage (2-property portfolio) | 123.06 | 1014 |
| 2014 | U.S. consumer prices | 100 | Not applicable |
| 2015 | U.S. consumer prices | 100.12 | Not applicable |
| 2016 | U.S. consumer prices | 101.38 | Not applicable |
| 2017 | U.S. consumer prices | 103.54 | Not applicable |
| 2018 | U.S. consumer prices | 106.07 | Not applicable |
| 2019 | U.S. consumer prices | 107.99 | Not applicable |
| 2020 | U.S. consumer prices | 109.32 | Not applicable |
| 2021 | U.S. consumer prices | 114.46 | Not applicable |
The Quarters buildings didn’t move together either
Cameron’s B1 quote went from $915 in November 2014 to $961 in 2015, $1,005 in 2016, $1,030 in 2017 and $875 in 2018. That last change was a 15.0% cut. November 2019 showed $1,050–$1,060. Lease years weren’t consistently printed, so these are the dates the offers were seen. [10][11]
Cameron and Montgomery had five identical matched changes in the 2017-to-2018 window, including that 15% decline. Sterling was mixed; matched multibed layouts at Nueces and Grayson rose; Karnes lacked a matching window. SMART eligibility changes, shared occupancy and changing square footage disqualified some apparent matches.
Cameron and Montgomery survived under the 1883 name but were missing from the supplied current directory. Their older prices were recovered from a different historical host. A vanished website name wasn’t a vanished building.
Nine of twelve matched 26 West offers were lower
An archived December 2023 pricing response offered Fall 2024 full-term leases. The October 2026 response offered Fall 2027. Twelve non-SMART named layouts kept the same floor-plan drawings: nine starting prices fell and three rose. Excluding old waitlisted plans leaves six declines and three increases. [18][19]
Both 4×4 A and B moved from $1,349 to $1,249, down 7.4%. The 1×1 B moved from $2,139 to $2,259, up 5.6%. Different signing months, fees, room variants and concessions remain outside that match. A website can list current, next-year, spring and summer offers together; the retrieval date alone doesn’t identify the contract.
| Floor plan | Change (%) | Fall 2024 quote ($) | Fall 2027 quote ($) | Earlier availability | Later availability |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 Bed - 1 Bath A | 3.20 | 2189 | 2259 | Limited Availability | Limited Availability |
| 1 Bed - 1 Bath B | 5.61 | 2139 | 2259 | Limited Availability | Limited Availability |
| 2 Bed - 1 Bath A | -7.36 | 1494 | 1384 | Limited Availability | Available |
| 2 Bed - 1 Bath B | -7.75 | 1484 | 1369 | Limited Availability | Available |
| 2 Bed - 2 Bath C | -5.05 | 1584 | 1504 | Waitlist | Limited Availability |
| 2 Bed - 2 Bath Corner A | -2.47 | 1619 | 1579 | Limited Availability | Limited Availability |
| 2 Bed - 2 Bath Corner B | -3.94 | 1649 | 1584 | Limited Availability | Available |
| 2 Bed - 2 Bath D | -5.49 | 1639 | 1549 | Waitlist | Limited Availability |
| 2 Bed - 2 Bath w/Study | 0.63 | 1594 | 1604 | Limited Availability | Available |
| 4 Bed - 2 Bath | -6.67 | 1274 | 1189 | Waitlist | Available |
| 4 Bed - 4 Bath A | -7.41 | 1349 | 1249 | Limited Availability | Available |
| 4 Bed - 4 Bath B | -7.41 | 1349 | 1249 | Limited Availability | Available |
The apparently conflicting neighborhood headlines counted different things
Bloomberg/Type Investigations reported roughly 37% growth in median gross rent between 2009 and 2017. Austin’s UNO study reported inflation-adjusted rent per bed falling from $1,479 in 2004 Q3 to $1,275 in 2023 Q3. A 2019 city memo compared 24% student-apartment rent-per-unit growth with 25% for conventional apartments in 2013–2018, despite very different apartment sizes. Those can all be true without describing one consistent room. [12][13][14][15]
Austin-wide ACS one-year median gross rent rose from $1,084 in 2014 to $1,426 in 2021 and $1,770 in 2024. Its reported 90% margins were $17, $25 and $25. That’s 63.3% nominal growth over the decade against 32.5% CPI inflation, but it measures a changing stock of whole homes with utilities, not student beds. Reddit and listing averages can suggest questions; neither supplies a representative set of signed leases. [9][33][36][37][38]
New towers can hold down comparable rents while raising the neighborhood average
New buildings change what gets averaged. They can attract residents from elsewhere while weakening pricing power at older buildings. Studies in other cities support that mechanism; they don’t supply a West Campus dollar effect. The local archive hasn’t been joined to verified annual net new beds and a credible comparison group. [20]
UT enrollment rose about 5.0%, from 51,313 in 2014 to 53,864 in 2024. That isn’t West Campus demand: it doesn’t count where students want to live or what room they want. Buying an existing residence also doesn’t create new neighborhood beds. UNO’s mixed apartment/bedroom totals and affordability dates can’t be treated as annual openings. [12][25][27][28]
The whole contract sets your cost
For N installments, add N times base rent, unavoidable recurring charges and one-time fees, then subtract applicable concessions. Show refundable deposits as cash needed upfront. Price optional parking, meals and insurance alternatives in their own scenarios. Divide by contracted days when comparing occupancy periods; ten academic-year payments don’t become twelve months of housing.
Moontower’s 2027–28 calculator lists $25 green, $10 trash and $15 Fetch charges per installment, plus conditional credit-reporting and damage-waiver charges and $249 upfront. The first three add $50 each installment. That proves fees matter; the historical fee schedules aren’t complete enough to say how much neighborhood price growth moved into fees. [17]
A common leasing portal doesn’t prove common rent-recommendation software. A credible pricing test needs adoption dates, comparable offers, ownership and management histories, and pricing decisions. None of the buildings is labeled an algorithm user just because its site uses familiar software.
How we got this
The reconstruction covers the requested 2014–2024 core and later offers through October 30, 2026; future 2027–28 offers stay labeled as future. It contains 316 Nueces rate entries, 806 Quarters historical entries, 1,502 archived ACC API rows, 1,217 newly retrieved API rows and 86 older HTML quotes. These overlap and aren’t counts of unique rooms.
The directory priced 39 of its 79 West Campus-tagged entries. Of 2,163 priced plan options, 1,007 belonged to The Block; 1,419 were labeled 2027–28, 731 were 2026–27 and thirteen had no confirmed year. An average of those rows would overweight one network. The archive audit assessed 34 of 65 selected pricing paths; 31 were rate-limited. No missing price was filled with an estimate.
The data download keeps raw prices, dates, promotions, comparable-layout decisions, aliases, coverage gaps and source links. The tables below show the financial and quote comparisons. They don’t support one constant-quality neighborhood growth rate or a causal ownership, construction or software verdict.
Source links
UT Austin Housing Cost Explorer: public data snapshot, retrieved October 30, 2026
2400 Nueces official floor plans, archived October 9, 2014
UT: 2400 Nueces current rates, including 2025–26 and 2026–27
UT rates and billing, October 24, 2020: base rate and promotion footnote
UT 2400 Nueces property page, October 20, 2020: monthly discount and applicable period
UT retrospective rate tables, archived January 18, 2022
American Campus Communities 2014 Form 10-K, Item 2
American Campus Communities 2021 Form 10-K, Item 2
BLS: U.S. CPI-U annual and monthly historical table
Quarters Cameron pricing, archived 2017-11-22
Quarters Cameron pricing, archived 2018-11-12
City of Austin: University Neighborhood Overlay, A Local Case Study, March 2024
Daily Texan coverage, April 24, 2025, preserved by UTexas.Rent
City of Austin: student housing effects memo, 2019
SEC: UBS 2019-C16 term sheet, SkyLoft rent roll and appraisal comparables
Moontower: official lease-price calculator
26 West: official pricing API, retrieved October 30, 2026
26 West: archived pricing API, December 23, 2023
Upjohn Institute: local effects of new market-rate apartment buildings
1883 at Cameron: current official floor-plan offers
Quarters Sterling: current official floor-plan offers
Quarters Nueces: current official floor-plan offers
Quarters Grayson: current official floor-plan offers
City of Austin: University Neighborhood Overlay program definitions
U.S. Census Bureau: ACS summary files and documentation
UT Austin catalog: statistical summaries
UT Austin: Fall 2024 enrollment release, September 19, 2024
Quarters Cameron B1 baseline, November 12, 2014
Quarters Sterling B1 baseline, November 3, 2014
Quarters Nueces B1 baseline, November 8, 2014
Quarters Grayson C3 baseline, November 12, 2015
Wall Street Journal: Windowless Rooms and Town-Gown Battles, March 25, 2024
2400 Nueces floor plans, November 23, 2014
UT 2400 Nueces rates, October 14, 2024
Census: 2024 ACS one-year median gross rent, Austin city
Census: 2021 ACS one-year median gross rent, Austin city
Census: 2014 ACS one-year median gross rent, Austin city
Blackstone: completion of American Campus Communities acquisition, August 9, 2022