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Single family rent growth slows, but prices are still way above 2021 levels

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Prices for single-family rentals continued to slow their rate of growth in June, according to a new study, but remained elevated significantly from their 2021 levels.

Single-family rents in June were 13.4 percent above their levels in June 2021, but growth has slowed slightly month over month compared to the astronomic growth seen earlier this year, according to data from the financial services company CoreLogic.

The slight slowdown may be attributed to economic uncertainty, with fears of a recession becoming more commonplace despite employment levels returning to their pre-pandemic numbers, and the countless Americans that remain locked out of homeownership in the current high mortgage rate environment.

“While the annual growth in single-family rents is nearly double that of a year ago and is still near a record level, price growth began decelerating in June,” said Molly Boesel, principal economist at CoreLogic. “Nationwide, both year-over-year and month-over-month growth were slower in June than they were earlier this year, and roughly half of the largest U.S. metro areas experienced a slowdown in annual growth in June.”

CoreLogic found that prices for lower priced and lower middle priced single family rentals increased 14.2 percent from June 2021, while higher middle priced rentals saw a 14 percent increase and those in the higher priced bracket went up 12.5 percent.

Miami rentals continued their moonshot trajectory, posting a 35.5 percent yearly gain, the 11th consecutive month the south Florida metro led the nation for growth. Orlando and San Diego followed at 23.3 and 15.2 respectiely. The lowest annual gains were seen by both St. Louis and Honolulu, which both posted increases of 6.6 percent.

Preferences developed during the Covid-19 pandemic may be starting to lose their luster, CoreLogic’s latest report posits. The pandemic brought hoards of renters to lower density neighborhoods with detached rentals with amentities such as outdoor space. Data from June shows that detached rentals saw a slightly slower rate of growth than attached rentals, jumping only 12.8 percent from 2021 while attached rentals saw a 13.2 percent increase in growth. Overall rent growth for detached homes over the past two years however remains much stronger than attached, with detached homes growing 24.9 percent compared to 18.8 percent on a two year basis.

Email Ben Verde