Rent growth continues slowdown in new year.
Despite large year-over-year (YoY) increases, rent growth has slowed during the past several months. In the latest National Rent Report from Apartment List, the index increased 0.2% during January, yet the YoY increase is at 17.8%. Over the past four months, rent growth is at 0.9%.
“Much of this cooldown is likely related to seasonal factors; it remains to be seen if rapid rent growth will return as moving activity picks back up in the spring and summer,” according to report.
More than 40% of the 100 largest cities saw rents decline during January, and only five markets saw rent increases of more than 1%. National median rent is at $1,312, up $120 from what Apartment List predicted had rent growth continued without the pandemic slowdown and on average growth rates from 2018 and 2019. Furthermore, YoY rent growth has substantially increased compared to pre-pandemic numbers, where the January YoY growth averaged just north of 2% in the three years prior to the pandemic.
New York City had the fastest rent growth between January 2021 and January 2022 at a 33.5% increase. Tampa, Fla., and Scottsdale, Ariz., were slightly behind at 31.4% and 31.1%, respectively. Nearly all of the top 20 cities for YoY rent growth are within the Sun Belt.
Meanwhile, Oakland, Calif., was the slowest city relating to YoY growth at 0.5%. Detroit at 2.6% and Minneapolis at 4.8% were the only other cities under 5% growth.