Apartment rent trends may have hit a new stride. The Apartment List national rent index increased by .7% month-over-month in February, the largest monthly increase since June 2019. The increase also represents the second consecutive month of rent growth, a possible turn in the downward trend in rates catalyzed by the pandemic.

Considering historic rent growth trends, the month-over-month increase represents a substantial bump forward. For the past three years, February rent growth was .3% month-over-month. The report from Apartment List notes that the 2021 increase is more than double February 2020. In January, rent growth also outpaced the prior year's average.

It isn't all good news. Overall, the national rent index is still down .8% year-over-year, and rents have yet to recover to the post-pandemic peak in August following a trough in December. However, the gains in January and February have helped to offset some of those losses. Rents are now down only .1% from June rent levels, and rent losses are starting to recover. Last month, rents had a year-over-year decline of 1.2%, and this month the number has improved to .8%.

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Kelsi Maree Borland

Kelsi Maree Borland is a freelance journalist and magazine writer based in Los Angeles, California. For more than 5 years, she has extensively reported on the commercial real estate industry, covering major deals across all commercial asset classes, investment strategy and capital markets trends, market commentary, economic trends and new technologies disrupting and revolutionizing the industry. Her work appears daily on GlobeSt.com and regularly in Real Estate Forum Magazine. As a magazine writer, she covers lifestyle and travel trends. Her work has appeared in Angeleno, Los Angeles Magazine, Travel and Leisure and more.