After six months of decreases in the national rent growth rate, October saw a slight increase, according to Axiometrics data.
Rent growth was 2.6 percent in October, which was a 2-basis-point increase over September’s rent growth and the first month-over-month increase since March. However, year-over-year rent growth for October is 226 basis points lower than the 4.9 percent effective rent growth in October 2015.
October’s 2.6 percent national annual rent growth is still above the long-term average of 2.2 percent, and 26 of the top 50 metro markets have rent growth rates that exceed the national rate.
Sacramento, California, had the highest rent growth in October (11.4 percent), followed by Riverside, California (7.2 percent), Las Vegas (6.8 percent), Salt Lake City (6.4 percent) and Fort Worth, Texas (5.8 percent).
Historically, occupancy tends to decline in October, and this year was no different: The occupancy rate decreased 23 basis points, to 94.9 percent.