Rents across the U.S. are easing slightly, but the data is still fairly market specific. Both the Zumper National Rent Report and the Apartment List National Rent Report for the month of October saw declines in rent prices.
Zumper reports median one-bedroom rent declined 0.8% compared to the previous month, and two-bedroom rent is down 0.7%. New York City remained atop the top 10 list with one-bedroom rent at $3,860. Boston jumped San Francisco, and both are the only other cities with median one-bedroom rent above $3,000. Seven of the top 10 cities showed rents declining, two remained unchanged and Boston saw a nearly 6% increase.
The Apartment List index declined 0.7% during October, which is the second straight month of month-to-month declines—the largest single month drop in the index’s history dating back to 2017. In 2022, rents are up nearly 6%, compared to 18% at this time last year. This is only slightly above rent growth that was seen during January-October prior to the pandemic: 4.2% in 2018 and 3.2% in 2019. Also, rents declined in 89 of the largest 100 cities.