Rent prices continued to drop for the 11th straight month this June, according to the latest data from Realtor.com®. Despite continued decreases, however, rents remain elevated from the pre-pandemic levels of 2019.
Realtor.com’s Rental Report for June found that overall rents decreased by 0.4% to $1,743—0.6% ($11) below the August 2022 peak.
Breaking down the rent changes for different units, studio rents dropped 1.2% to $1,463, one-bedroom rents dropped 1.1% to $1,618 and two-bedroom rents dropped 0.3% to $1,939.
As mentioned, despite the decreases in the national averages of rent prices, growth is still above the levels seen in 2019. National average rents are anywhere from 17.6% to 23% above their 2019 rates, and the median asking rent for zero- to two-bedroom units across the top 50 metro areas is 21.2% higher than 2019.
“Rents have been steadily falling for almost a year, though the pace of the decline has slowed,” said Danielle Hale, chief economist at Realtor.com. “But rental costs have risen significantly since before the pandemic and inflation has further strained renters’ budgets, underscoring the need for more supply to meet demand and to keep renters from contributing an increasing percentage of their incomes to housing costs.”
The Top 10 markets experiencing the fastest price growth versus pre-pandemic rents include: Tampa Bay, Florida (+39.5%); Miami, Florida (+39.2%); Indianapolis, Indiana (+37.5%); Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (+37.4%); Sacramento, California (+35.8%); Virginia Beach, Virginia-North Carolina (+32.5%); New York City metro area (+31.3%); Cleveland, Ohio (+30.6%); Raleigh, North Carolina (29.8%); and Birmingham, Alabama (+29.3%).
Looking regionally, June’s rental trends are a bit mixed. The biggest year-over-year declines were all in the South, led by Austin (-9.5%), San Antonio (-8.2%) and Nashville (-8.1%). Rents rose overall in the Midwest, with increases seen in Indianapolis (+4.4%), Milwaukee (+3.7%) and Minneapolis (+3.7%). Metros in the West saw year-over-year rents decline, including Los Angeles (-1.9%) and San Francisco (-4.2%). Coastal cities in the Northeast, such as New York (+0.6%), saw rental rates grow slowly.
For the full report, click here.
