Updated September 2026
If you're shopping for rental property near Auburn, I send investors to four places, and each one suits a different plan. Condos and townhomes close to campus and downtown Auburn. Single-family houses inside Auburn. Opelika and the rest of the Lee County Association of REALTORS® footprint next door. And Lake Martin, for a second home you rent out when you're not using it.
These four are property-type and search-area starting points, not a ranking of rental performance; the broad sales figures cannot tell you which address will lease best. The right pick comes down to three things: the kind of lease you want to manage, the purchase price you're comfortable with, and how hands-on you want to be. Below, I walk through each one with July 2026 sales figures next to July 2025, then the questions I'd ask before you write an offer.
The Bottom Line
- Campus-area condos: AUBURN condo listings roughly doubled from July 2025 to July 2026, and condo sales rose too. My read: condo buyers have a lot more to choose from than they did last summer.
- Auburn houses: the priciest way in. Auburn's single-family median close rose year over year even as fewer houses sold.
- The wider association market: the ALL AREAS residential median sold price sat below the AUBURN residential median in both Julys. ALL AREAS includes Auburn and Opelika, so it's a regional figure, not an Opelika price.
- Lake Martin: a second-home play that rents part of the year, with its own rules and its own association counting sales.
- Sale prices set your cost. Leased comps set your income. Get rent comps for the exact address before you run your numbers.
Listing inventory and closed-sales data tell you what it costs to get in
The figures in this post are listing inventory and closed-sales data: how many homes were on the market, what homes sold for, and how many sold. That tells you what it costs to buy in and how much room you may have to negotiate. It doesn't tell you what a unit will lease for, how long it could sit empty, or what the HOA will charge next year.
For those answers, I lean on three things. Leased comps for similar units, a conversation with a local property manager, and the HOA's current documents. A rental that looks cheap to buy can still be a poor fit if the rent won't carry it.
In my experience, the Auburn University calendar drives a big share of the local lease cycle. Campus-area leases tend to line up with the fall semester. Demand also comes from university staff and from people who've just moved here for work and want to rent for a year before they buy. That rhythm shapes which property types lease easily, and when.
Condos and townhomes near campus and downtown Auburn
When most people say "Auburn rental," they picture a condo or townhome within a short drive, bike ride, or walk of campus. In my experience, it's still the property type that fits an academic-year lease most naturally. It's also the lowest price point of the Auburn options in this post.
The July figures show a condo market with far more inventory. The Lee County Association of REALTORS® counted 48 (Lee County Association of REALTORS®, July 2025 housing stats, AUBURN) AUBURN condos on the market in July 2025 and 94 in July 2026, roughly double. AUBURN condo sales climbed from 14 to 32 over the same year.
Chart 1. AUBURN condos on the market and sold, July 2025 vs July 2026. Source: Lee County Association of REALTORS®, July 2025 housing stats, AUBURN; Lee County Association of REALTORS®, July 2026 housing stats, AUBURN.
Listings and sales both grew, so buyers stayed active while more condos were on the market. Even so, condos on the market still far outnumbered condos sold in July 2026.
Prices moved up as well. The AUBURN condo median sold price was $272,500 in July 2025 and $357,250 in July 2026. Condos also took longer to sell: AUBURN condo average days on market went from 29 to 57.
One caution. Auburn's monthly condo counts are small, so a few sales can swing the median a long way. I'd watch that price jump for a few more months before calling it a trend.
Here's what I have condo investors check first:
- Leasing rules in the HOA documents. Some associations cap how many units can be rented or set minimum lease terms. Read the current documents yourself, not the summary in the listing.
- The HOA budget and reserves. A surprise special assessment can wipe out a year of rent faster than you can say "War Eagle."
- Parking and distance to campus. In my experience, tenants here weigh those two heavily.
Thinking about renting on football weekends too? Read my post on Auburn short-term rental rules before you count on game-day income.
Single-family houses in Auburn
Renting out a house in Auburn is a different business from renting out a condo. In my experience, leases run longer, tenants tend to stay longer, and the buy-in price is much higher.
A separate analysis of Lee County MLS closed-sale records for single-family homes in the Auburn area shows how far prices have climbed. The median close was $432,000 in July 2025 and $490,663 in July 2026. Median price per square foot went from $194.03 to $200.86. Single-family sales slipped from 135 to 112, and median days on market barely moved, 23 versus 22.
Supply tells the other half of the story. In the broader AUBURN residential category, listings on the market went from 320 in July 2025 to 442 in July 2026. AUBURN residential sales fell from 136 to 114.
Chart 2. AUBURN residential on the market and sold, July 2025 vs July 2026. Source: Lee County Association of REALTORS®, July 2025 housing stats, AUBURN; Lee County Association of REALTORS®, July 2026 housing stats, AUBURN.
Listings went up while sales went down, so the stack of homes for sale grew a lot relative to what actually closed. It's a one-month comparison, not an official months-of-supply figure, but the direction is clear. My read: an investor shopping for an Auburn house this fall has more choices and more room to negotiate than a year ago, even though prices haven't come down.
New construction is a big share of what's selling. In that same Auburn-area MLS single-family analysis, new construction made up 40.7% of single-family sales in July 2025 and 39.3% in July 2026. For a rental, a newer house can mean fewer repair calls in the early years. An older house closer to town can mean a location tenants will pay more for. If you're weighing one part of town against another, my comparison of Auburn neighborhoods is a good next read.
Opelika and the wider association market
If Auburn's price is the sticking point, a lot of the investors I work with widen the search east. Opelika sits right next door, a short drive from campus, with a mix of older in-town streets and newer subdivisions. For a street-level look, start with my guide to the best neighborhoods in Opelika.
For numbers, the association's ALL AREAS cut covers its whole footprint, Auburn and Opelika included. The ALL AREAS residential median sold price was $387,150 (Lee County Association of REALTORS®, July 2025 housing stats, ALL AREAS) in July 2025 and $406,260 in July 2026. Over the same year, the AUBURN residential median sold price went from $431,625 to $494,087.
Chart 3. Residential median sold price, AUBURN and ALL AREAS, July 2025 vs July 2026. Source: Lee County Association of REALTORS®, July 2025 housing stats, AUBURN; Lee County Association of REALTORS®, July 2026 housing stats, AUBURN; Lee County Association of REALTORS®, July 2025 housing stats, ALL AREAS; Lee County Association of REALTORS®, July 2026 housing stats, ALL AREAS.
AUBURN sat above ALL AREAS in both Julys, and the gap widened in 2026. My read: parts of the footprint outside Auburn generally trade at lower prices, but that's a regional pattern, not an Opelika number. For an Opelika-only price, I'll pull sold comps on the specific streets you're considering.
Supply grew across the region too. ALL AREAS residential listings on the market rose from 650 in July 2025 to 834 in July 2026, while ALL AREAS residential sales dipped from 260 to 239. ALL AREAS residential average days on market held steady at 54 in July 2025 and 54 in July 2026.
Lake Martin for a second home that rents part-time
Lake Martin isn't a campus rental market. In my experience, people buy there to enjoy the place themselves and rent out the weeks they're away. Insurance, local rules, and resale all work differently than they do for a condo near campus. And lake demand follows summer weekends a lot more than football Saturdays.
The Lake Martin Area Association of REALTORS counted 75 (Lake Martin Area Association of REALTORS, July 2026) residential sales across its reporting area in July 2026, up from 63 in July 2025. That's every residential sale the association reported, not a lakefront-only count. The association also notes that its figures depend on agents reporting their sales, so I read them as direction, not precision.
If the lake is on your list, start with my guide to the best Lake Martin communities and my take on whether a Lake Martin house is a good investment. Then check the short-term rental rules for that county and any HOA before you count on rental weeks.
What I'd check before buying a rental anywhere near Auburn
These matter more than which side of town you pick:
- Leased comps for that exact address. Look at what similar units actually leased for, not what they were advertised at. Then ask a local property manager to check your numbers.
- Zoning and occupancy rules. Confirm with the city what's allowed at that address before you plan around a certain number of bedrooms or tenants.
- HOA documents. Leasing caps, minimum lease terms, and any pending assessments.
- Your exit. Who buys this property from you down the road? The resale market for a campus condo looks nothing like the one for a lake house.
- Your time. Campus-area leases often turn over every year. Longer single-family leases usually don't. Be honest about which one you want to manage.
Figures are listing and closed data for the AUBURN and ALL AREAS cuts of the Lee County Association of REALTORS® and the reporting area of the Lake Martin Area Association of REALTORS as of July 2026 and July 2025, from those associations' monthly housing reports, plus a separate analysis of Lee County MLS closed-sale records for single-family homes in the Auburn area. Market conditions change and past figures are not a prediction. This is not investment or tax advice and no return is guaranteed. Local rules change. Confirm current requirements with the City of Auburn, the City of Opelika, or the county where the property sits before relying on anything here. This is not legal advice.
Let's talk through your rental plan
I'm Amy Cotney, a licensed real estate salesperson (Alabama license #108235) with Roots Real Estate - Investment Development here in Auburn. I help investors figure out which part of the Auburn, Opelika, and Lake Martin market fits their plan, and I'll tell you straight when a property doesn't work on paper. My training as a Certified Interior Decorator also helps me spot which finishes will hold up to tenants and which won't. You can read more about me and how I work, and when you're ready to look at a rental, let's set up a time to talk. I build strong relationships that lead to sold homes and happy buyers, through communication, not automation.
Sources
- Lee County Association of REALTORS®, July 2025 housing stats, AUBURN
- Lee County Association of REALTORS®, July 2026 housing stats, AUBURN
- Lee County Association of REALTORS®, July 2025 housing stats, ALL AREAS
- Lee County Association of REALTORS®, July 2026 housing stats, ALL AREAS
- Lake Martin Area Association of REALTORS, July 2026. Current report: https://www.lmaar.org/
- Lake Martin Area Association of REALTORS, July 2025. Current report: https://www.lmaar.org/
- Analysis of Lee County MLS closed-sale records, single-family homes, Auburn area: 135 closed sales in July 2025 and 112 closed sales in July 2026.
