US Multifamily Rents Lag at Start of 2018

US multifamily rent growth waned in the beginning of 2018. According to research from Rent Café, apartment rents increased 2% in the start of the year, the weakest growth for the same period of time since 2010. Overall, cities with the largest apartment units saw the most rent growth, including Las Vegas, Orlando, Denver and Los Angeles, all of which saw 4% to 6% rent growth. Manhattan, Austin, DC, and Chicago showed no year-over-year rent growth. Detroit beat Las Vegas for the highest rent growth in a large city with a 5.3% increase. Stockton and Tampa had the highest rent growth in the mid-sized cities category, and markets like Reno, Odessa and Yonkers made the top of the list for the small cities category. To find out more about these rent growth patterns, we sat down with Nadia Balint of Rent Café for an exclusive interview.

GlobeSt.com: Why has rent growth momentum slowed at the start of this year?

Nadia Balint: Following several consecutive years of record deliveries, apartment supply is expected to hit a new peak this year, with tens of thousands of new units to be delivered in many of the nation’s primary rental markets such as New York, Washington DC, Los Angeles, Chicago, Austin, and others, slowing down overall growth. Slow-growing wages and lots of new units, most at the high end of the market, chasing after the same renters is inevitably affecting rent prices.