The price gap is also closing between one- and two-bedroom apartments.
One- and two-bedroom apartment rents have reach new highs. According to the latest National Rent Report from Zumper, the median national rent for one-bedrooms is at $1,503, while two-bedrooms are at $1,845—the former hitting a new record for the ninth straight month.
The gap between median rents for one- and two-bedrooms has also closed year-over-year (YoY), marking the closest they have been since May 2022. The two data points had relatively moved in lockstep over the past year.
“The rental market has been very supply constrained for the past five quarters, but there has been a significant shift back towards equilibrium in the past quarter,” said Zumper CEO Anthemos Georgiades in a release. “Occupancy rates and the pace of rent increases are now falling in many major metros as renter demand softens and fear of recession kicks in, with many renters deciding to stay put or trade down on the most expensive options.”
New York City continues to have the highest rent for median one-bedrooms at $3,950. San Francisco ($3,100), Boston ($2,890) and San Jose, Calif. ($2,770), stayed put in the top 10. San Diego, Los Angeles, Oakland and Santa Ana were the other California markets in the top 10. While the month-to-month increase in New York was only half a percentage point, the year-over-year increase is pushing 34%. Chesapeake, Va., and Tulsa, Okla., were also among the markets with at least a 30% increase YoY.
Meanwhile, two-bedroom rents in New York ($4,410) have jumped 40% YoY, but only 0.2% month to month. While some markets have a large difference between one- and two-bedroom rents, some do not, e.g., Providence, R.I.; Nashville, Tenn.; Winston-Salem, N.C.; Laredo, Texas; St. Louis; and Cleveland are among the cities that have less than a $100 difference between the two medians.