No, plenty of indices use a "repeat-rent" methodology (comparing only prices changes across the same unit) to address the problem you describe. They show Austi

No, plenty of indices use a "repeat-rent" methodology (comparing only prices changes across the same unit) to address the problem you describe. They show Austin rents going down, eg Zillow's Observed Rent Index: https://www.zillow.com/research/data/ https://www.zillow.com/research/data/