A staggering increase in rental prices across the country is threatening affordability and contributing to an ongoing inflation crisis, with a new report from CoreLogic finding single-family rent increased 11.5% year-over-year, with a handful of metro areas exceeding that already massive jump.
As government protections expired this past fall and new monies to assist renters dried up, landlords have raised rents in response to broad inflationationary pressure, putting many tenants in difficult financial situations.
“Improvements in the economy and job market have helped push single-family rent growth to record levels,” said Molly Boesel, principal economist at CoreLogic. “However, rapid increases in single-family rents, especially for lower-priced properties, have led to a continued erosion of affordability.”
The report broke down rental properties by cost and type, separating attached and detached units as well as sorting by price tier.
Higher-priced rentals experienced a slightly larger increase, with those properties priced at 125% or more over the median up 11.7% year-over-year, and properties between 100% and 125% increasing 12%.
Demand for detached single-family rentals initially jumped during the pandemic, pushing those prices to a more than 12% increase. That demand has somewhat fallen off in recent months, though, while single-family attached rental prices continue to climb to just above 10%.
Regions
The city of Miami was an outlier as far as rental costs, with prices for a single-family rental in that city rocketing 33% in 2021, reaching an average of $2,345 for a three-bedroom property.
Several cities in the West and Southwest saw rent increases outpacing the national average, including Phoenix, Arizona (up 19.4%); Las Vegas, Nevada (up 16.7%); Austin, Texas and Orlando, Florida (both up 15.9%); and San Diego, California (15.4%).
The West continues to have the most expensive rental markets, with Los Angeles (median price of $3,188) and San Diego ($3,175) topping the big Northeast metros like New York City ($2,821) and Boston ($2,876
Jesse Williams is RISMedia’s associate online editor. Email him your real estate news ideas to jwilliams@rismedia.com
