Asking rents are down 0.4% from October to November, resulting in the largest monthly decline in the seven-year history of Zillow’s Observed Rent Index. While November is historically the slowest month recorded in the index, declines had not reached 0.1% during this time of the year pre-pandemic.
Asking rents hit $2,008, which is 8.4% higher than a year ago. Rent growth cooling has been caused by higher rental costs and inflation as well as the lack of new household formations, according to Zillow.
A decline in rents has been witnessed in more expensive rental markets home to technology hubs such as Raleigh, N.C., Austin, Texas, and San Francisco. San Jose, Calif., has the highest rent at $3,283, with San Francisco ($3,138), New York City ($3,130) and San Diego ($3,056) as the other markets with rents over $3,000.