Tracking rents is important for understanding the dynamics of the housing market. Slower household formation and increased supply (more multi-family completions) has kept asking rents under pressure.
Rents are down 0.7% month-over-month, down 0.7% year-over-year
Welcome to the November 2024 Apartment List National Rent Report. National Rent Report. The national median rent dipped by 0.7% in October, as we get further into the slow season for the rental market. The median monthly rent nationally fell by $10, putting it at $1,394, and we’re likely to see that number continue to dip modestly through the remainder of the year.
Since the second half of 2022, the seasonal declines in rent prices that take place during the fall and winter have been steeper than usual and seasonal increases of the spring and summer have been more mild. As a result, apartments are on average slightly cheaper today than they were one year ago. Year-over-year rent growth nationally currently stands at -0.7 percent and has now been in negative territory for nearly a year and a half. Despite this, the national median rent is still more than $200 per month higher than it was just a few years ago.
On the supply side of the rental market, our national vacancy index ticked up to 6.8 percent, the highest reading since the onset of the pandemic. After a historic tightening in 2021, multifamily occupancy has been slowly but consistently easing for over two years amid an influx of new inventory. The third quarter of 2024 saw the most new apartment completions for a single quarter in fifty years, and with more than 800 thousand units still in the construction pipeline, the supply boom has runway to continue into 2025.
Realtor.com: 14th Consecutive Month with Year-over-year Decline in Rents
In September 2024, the U.S. median rent continued to decline year-over-year for the fourteenth month in a row, down $8 or -0.5% year-over-year for 0-2 bedroom properties across the top 50 metros, faster than the rate of -0.3% seen in August 2024. The median asking rent was $1,743, down by $10 from last month, reflecting a similar seasonal trend as observed in the for-sale market.
Despite the fourteenth month of decline, the U.S. median rent was just $17 (-1.0%) less than the peak seen in August 2022. Notably, it was still $286 (19.6%) higher than the same time in 2019 (pre-pandemic), but this increase is roughly on par with what has occurred in overall consumer prices (up 22.7% in the 5 years ending September 2024) and pales in comparison to the 50.8% increase in median price-per-square-foot of for-sale home listings in the 5 years ending September 2024. Further, the relative steadiness in rents should translate into slower shelter inflation in the months ahead, alleviating one of the biggest recent drivers of rising prices.
CoreLogic: Rents Increase 2.4% YoY for Single-Family
U.S. single-family rent prices were up by 2.4% year over year in August, the lowest rate of growth recorded since last fall.
“Single-family rent growth slowed in August from both a year and a month ago,” said CoreLogic Principal Economist Molly Boesel. “The monthly drop in single-family rents of 0.2% was notable as it was contrary to the typical August increase of 0.3% and therefore points to quickly decelerating single-family rents. However, some metro areas bucked the national trend – the top metros in rent growth in August all had accelerating gains from a year ago.”
The 2.4% YoY increase for single-family homes in August was down from 2.8% YoY in July. Note that the low tier declined YoY.
Effective asking rents for professionally managed apartments inched up just 0.3% in the year-ending October 2024, with change measured on a same-store basis. Annual rent growth in the U.S. apartment market has remained mild – at no more than 0.4% – for the past 14 consecutive months, according to data from RealPage Market Analytics.
Rent Data
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