REPORT: June 2024 Rent Trends

On Tuesday, July 3, we published our monthly National Rent Report, highlighting national rent trend data as well as rent price data by state and by city. To create this report, we analyze rent trends in 100 major U.S. cities.?

Click here to read the full report.

Overview

In this month’s report, we explained a few key trends:

• There are only 12 cities where rent is up MoM and YoY. Half are in the Midwest.
• Rent is down MoM and YoY in the Southwest region, with Texas seeing the biggest decreases over time.
• Iowa saw the biggest rent increase MoM on the state level.

National Trends

While rent trends differ from region to region, here’s what you need to know about rent prices on a national level:

For most cities, rent price is flat or down — but more expensive markets are still driving the national median up.

• The national median price of a one-bedroom apartment (now $1,544) increased by 0.99% from May to June, but is down 2.2% year-over-year.
• While the rent price declines seen in 45 cities on our list are not huge (the average rent decrease from May to June is only 2.43%), it’s a welcome change during peak renting season. Of these 45 cities, only 13 have higher rent prices in 2024 than they did this time last year.

Regional Trends

In this month’s report, we dove deep into trends occurring in a few specific regions:

The Midwest

• Midwestern rents have skyrocketed since the summer of 2021. Asking rents for one-bedroom apartments are more expensive this year than in previous years across nearly all cities that we track in the region.
• Cedar Rapids?(+8% MoM, +24% YoY) and?Des Moines, IA?(+5% MoM, +20% YoY) are seeing the biggest hikes.

The Southwest

• Of the 12 Southwestern rental markets that we track, only two saw MoM increases (Houston?and?El Paso, TX) and only one had a YoY increase (Tucson, AZ) for one-bedroom apartments — but each of these increases was below 1%.
• Meanwhile, in Texas, rent has been dropping since the early days of the pandemic. Nearly all Texas cities that we track hit a rent peak in July ’22, and all have been on a steady decline ever since.

To interact with this visualization and others, view the full National Rent Report.

Rent at the State Level

• On the state level, the same regional trends hold up: Similar to what we are seeing on the city level, the Midwest (particularly Iowa) is bearing the brunt of big rent hikes. The median rent price of a one-bedroom apartment in Iowa at the state level is up 4% MoM and 13% YoY.
• On the other end of the spectrum was Maine, where rent decreased by almost 7% MoM at the state level.

The Bottom Line

The story of rapid rent growth in the Midwest has been unfolding for years now. While the rest of the country is enjoying small rent decreases, the once-upon-a-time affordability hub is no more. For example, in 10 Midwestern cities that we track, rent is up 25% or more when compared to August ’21. Meanwhile, in Texas, rent has been rapidly dropping since around the same time.?To learn more about rent trends in your city and to see our methodology, read our full monthly rent report here.