AUSTIN, Texas — A tenants’ rights activist organization in Austin, BASTA, came out with a new report saying evictions increased by 26% in 2024 from 2023, setting the record for most evictions ever filed in a single year at 13,210 in Travis County. 

What You Need To Know

  • Evictions in Austin increased by 26% in 2024, reaching the highest annual total ever with 13,210 cases

  • January 2025 set a monthly record with 1,404 eviction filings in Travis County

  • High eviction rates are not limited to Austin; Houston and Fort Worth also exceeded pre-pandemic levels

  • Experts attribute Austin’s high eviction numbers to a lack of protective policies that could help keep residents housed

Peishi Cheng is a data analyst for BASTA in Austin. He said landlords use eviction as an ultimate threat tool against renters.  

“Landlords for them, they don’t care in particular about one tenant over another. They just care that someone is paying the rent. And there are always people who are needing shelter and who are willing to pay the rent,” said Cheng.  

According to the report, the pace of evictions in 2025 is not slowing down. A record for most evictions filed in a single month was hit in January at 1,404.  

The communication and policy engagement manager at Eviction Lab, Juan Pablo Garnham, said Austin is not the only city in Texas seeing high eviction rates. He said cities like Houston and Forth Worth are seeing evictions higher than pre-pandemic levels, while Dallas is seeing a slight decline.  

“We’re seeing now more evicting activity than we would usually see before COVID-19,” said Garnham.  

Experts like Cheng and Garnham say there is not a single reason we’re seeing eviction increases in parts of Texas.  

“There are some locations like Philadelphia and New York City where we actually see lower numbers. And it’s kind of crazy to think that last month in Austin, we saw the same amount of filings that we saw in New York City as a whole... some cities have created policies and protections that are keeping people housed,” said Garnham.  

Cheng said the top evicting properties in Austin had more than 90 evictions filed each. The top property evicted nearly 170 households. He said these properties employ evictions as part of their property management and rent collection practices. Eviction Lab also has seen a similar trend in other cities in Texas, where the same properties are evicting more than others.  

“I think maybe just speaks to the ways that the affordability crisis has made it so that regardless of what the rent is, people are still looking for housing and they still need to they still need to have a place to live,” said Cheng.  

BASTA said it will take a coordinated effort to tackle the harm caused by evictions.