Nope. Rents dropped because the _population_ in Austin dropped. It has recovered to 2019 level only the last year and is still below the peak 2020 level (stats are taken at Jan 1).

2019 - 978,763 2020 - 995,484 2021 - 964,177 2022 - 975,418 2023 - 979,882

For the same reason, the SF rents also dropped by 30% during the pandemic.

And if you look at the surrounding Travis County (in TX), the population (and prices) there grew.