Year-over-year (YoY) rent growth in the U.S. is negative for the first time since the beginning of the pandemic. The August 2023 Apartment List National Rent Report shows rent growth is down 0.7% YoY despite the month-to-month increase of 0.3% during July. This is partly due to “sluggish demand and increasing supply,” according to the report.
Rent growth happened in 71 of the 100 largest U.S. cities month over month, but rents are down in 67 of the cities YoY.
Many of the top 10 cities witnessing the highest rent growth during the past six months were on the East Coast—Boston, Providence, New York and Philadelphia among others saw at least 5% rent growth. During the past 12 months, much of the rent growth seen in the top 10 was in the central part of the country with Chicago, Kansas City, Cincinnati, St. Louis and Indianapolis among the cities with the fastest rent growth. The more traditional Sun Belt markets—Tucson, Florida metros, San Diego and Riverside—remained atop the list of the fastest-growing cities within the past three years.
However, some of these Sun Belt metros are now among the slowest-growing cities during the past six months to a year. Phoenix was second in both slowest rent growth during the past six months and 12 months, while Miami, Atlanta and Los Angeles were also among the slowest rent growth cities during the past six months. Austin, Nashville and Salt Lake City were among the cities featured on both: during the past six months and 12 months. San Francisco (1%) and Minneapolis (7%) were the slowest rent growth cities during the past three years and are the only metros with single-digit rent growth.