Rent increases in Austin

I moved into my current 2-bedroom apt in Austin in 2017.

Rent History:
$1275 (2017 and 2018)
$1350
$1377
$1600 (May 2022)
$1800 (Just rec'd notice of my new rent)

Oh, how sociologically interesting: What is to become of me. I guess I can just barely afford $1800 monthly rent, though I can now no longer afford to replace my 2011 car. (And the apartment owners just tacked on a random $15 "Renters Legal Liability Fee," though I already have Renters Insurance.)

I like my current place for its 1200-sq-ft. Though there's no view or sun whatsoever. There's a small backyard, though you can't sit in it without neighbors looking at you from 10 ft away. The laundry room is close, and the pool is close. The maintenance room next door is sometimes loud during the day, but not after 5:30pm.

I have a job where I work from home, so there's no driving. I would really like having the sun come into my windows. I would really like a backyard where people aren't looking at me, and where maybe my cats could go out. It would be nice to have laundry connections in my own home.

You'd think that for $1800 a month that I could have something much better. Currently, I have a decent-sized 1200-sq-ft place, with no loud neighbors (and only occasionally loud maintenance men during office hours). I've lived here for 6 years, and hate to move. Upon a brief search on craigslist and Zillow, there's nothing else available in Austin.

All of that said: Who pays $1800 for a place with no sun that you don't really like? Who pays the grand sum of $1800 per month for a place that isn't a palace of some sort? I've got to move out of protest, but...where the hell to move TO? I've lived in Austin since 1983, when I came here to go to school. Ever since then I've lived in many a cheap student place: garage apartments, duplexes, apartments, etc. (ranging from $250 to $675). And then later, a house where I paid $810 for 6 years.

You'd think that $1800 per month would get you something actually good, like a HOUSE maybe... I'm utterly trapped. The new price of my current apartment is totally outrageous, but where am I supposed to move TO?

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Met with my apartment manager on Tuesday, 2/21 after receiving the above notice last Friday. Gave her my arguments re why my rent should not be $1800 per month: 

(1) I've lived here for 6 years and have never been late with rent.
(2) The same-sized apartment next to me has been empty for 6 months, listed at the $1800 price. If I moved out, and my apartment were only empty for 2 months, the company would lose more money than if it let me stay at a cheaper rent for a year.
(3) The company website and Craigslist both have apartments of my size going for $1756. I should at least get that rate.

My manager was nominally nice: After she consulted with her company, I was then offered $1725 per month rather than $1800. Initially, I celebrated! But then I read the lease: Aside from the new $15 per month fee for "liability" (no option to change this), there's also now a new $20 "pet rent" fee per pet. I officially have 2 cats, so that's a new $40 per month. $55 new fees total. So... Though my $1600 rent just went up to $1800, and I then allegedly got a break down to $1725... The new fees of $55 just brought me back up to $1780 per month. Weeeeee! I was paying $1600 last year and now I'll be paying $1780 instead of $1800! (With all of the utility add-ons, there's always at least $100 tacked on to the bill. I pay a stupid $50 per months for sewage, for instance.)

I'm fucking sick. But, as I've pondered before: Where the fuck else am I supposed to live. I wasn't prepared to move this year. And I've, of course, checked out various other options on the Austin market. There's nothing else out there for what I'm paying, unless I move to a shitty crime-infested neighborhood, or move 50 miles outside of town. I'm fucking trapped.

Let this be a lesson to me: Plan ahead for next year. Spend the next 12 months of being trapped in this idiotic, awful lease planning to get the hell out of it this time in 2024.