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Median asking rent rose to $1,654 in June, enough to lift prices above a high water mark set nearly two years ago, with some Midwest and Northeast markets shouldering double-digit increases, according to data released Tuesday from Zillow and Redfin.
The modest 0.7 percent uptick in asking rent represents the biggest gain in more than a year, according to Redfin, but it belies more significant gains in Washington D.C., where median asking rents rose 11.9 percent; in Cincinnati, where it inched up to 12.2 percent; and Virginia Beach, Virginia, where rents skyrocketed 12.9 percent year over year.
“Rent prices are rising in many Midwest and Northeast metros because those regions haven’t been building as many apartments as the Sun Belt,” Redfin data journalist Lily Katz wrote in the report. “The Midwest is also the most affordable region to live in, which helps bolster demand at a time when housing affordability is strained across most of the U.S,” Redfin reported.
Zillow, meanwhile, compared Hartford, Connecticut; Cleveland, Ohio; and Louisville, Kentucky, rent prices with some of the most expensive rental markets, including New York City and San Diego.
Since 2023, rent in Hartford, Connecticut, has grown by 7.8 percent, Cleveland by 7.8 percent, and Louisville, Kentucky, by 6.8 percent. Zillow Observed Rent Index (ZORI) data shows New York City’s typical rent as $3,472 and San Diego’s as $3,083.
While the price of rent and median rent remain on the rise, renters will have to continue to monitor the market and determine the best time to move and varying ways to save.
“More people move during the summer, which causes the rental market to heat up,” Zillow Chief Economist Skylar Olsen said in a statement. “Renters are being drawn to more affordable areas within the Northeast and Midwest.
“Commuting into New York City or Boston from places like Hartford, Connecticut, or Providence, Rhode Island, might have been a deterrent before, but in this new age of remote and hybrid work, the savings seem worth it for many renters, even if it means an occasional painful commute.”
