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In the latest sign that apartment rent was continuing to fall, 14 major metro areas saw year-over-year rents decline in November, according to a new report from Redfin.
Where rent is growing, it’s climbing at half the pace it was during the summer months.
The report follows several others that have found an ongoing slowdown across all sectors in the rental market, from short-term rentals to single-family and apartments.
“Rent growth is likely to continue cooling,” said Redfin economics research lead Chen Zhao. “Asking rents are already down annually in 14 of the metros Redfin tracks, and we expect declines to become more common in the new year.”
The median rent remained up 7.4 percent nationwide year over year, Redfin said. That’s the smallest monthly increase in 15 months. The median apartment now costs $2,007.
The downturn is expected to help push inflation lower, though rent is a lagging indicator in federal inflation metrics.
While rent likely peaked in March, its downturn has yet to show up in the federal government’s inflation reading.
“The CPI’s rent survey is the single-largest variable in the CPI’s single-largest category (shelter),” Jay Parsons, chief economist at rental data firm RealPage, wrote on Tuesday. “Rent is used not only to estimate renter costs, but it’s also the primary variable used to estimate (the much larger category of) homeowner costs, as well. It’s a big deal.”
Markets with largest year-over-year declines
- Milwaukee, Wisconsin (-13.1 percent)
- Houston, Texas (-6.3 percent)
- Austin, Texas (-5.3 percent)
- Baltimore, Maryland (-4.4 percent)
- Minneapolis, Minnesota (-4.1 percent)
Markets with largest year-over-year increases
- Raleigh, North Carolina (21.8 percent)
- Oklahoma City, Oklahoma (17.9 percent)
- Indianapolis, Indiana (15.8 percent)
- Cleveland, Ohio (14.9 percent)
- Nashville, Tennessee (14.8 percent)
— Redfin report, November 2022
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