Cities Where Apartment Rents Have Dropped the Most

Skyrocketing rent prices across the US have begun to stabilize, but in most major markets this plateau sits atop an Everest of YoY increases.

In NYC, which set a new national record for 1-BR average monthly rents in June at $5,812, YoY rents have risen by 41%, while the second most-expensive place to rent—across the Hudson River in Jersey City, where average monthly 1-BR rents topped out at $4,421 last month—the year-over-year increase has been more than 51%.

In the red-hot tech hub of Austin, a market that now has the seventh-highest average monthly rents at $3,257, rents have more than doubled since June 2021, growing YoY a staggering 108%.

According to a new report from Rent.com, there are only a handful of US markets—each of them mid-sized cities with populations of less than 400K—where rent increases crested last year and retreated by more than 24% in a June YoY comparison.

McKinney, TX, a suburb north of Dallas with a population of about 200K, tops Rent.com’s leaderboard in rent relief as of June: monthly rents in McKinney, now averaging about $681, have dropped by more than 50% YoY.

St. Louis, where monthly rents now average $1,250, YoY rents have declined by nearly 32%; Norfolk, with an average 1-BR monthly rent of $1,060, YoY rents have dropped by 24%; in Cleveland, where rents now average $1,111, the YoY decrease also is about 24%, according to the report.

Rent.com’s top 10 for the largest YoY rent decreases also includes Anaheim (-18,7%); Pittsburgh (-17.8%); Baltimore (-17.8%); Wichita (-15.4%); Houston (-14.7%); and Las Vegas (-12.7%).

Joining Austin, Jersey City and NYC in the top 10 for the largest YoY increases in monthly rents are Tempe, AZ (49.3%); Salt Lake City (40.5%); Long Beach, CA (39.6%); Fremont, CA (38.2%); Richmond VA (35.7%); Tacoma (32.8%); and Portland (32.2%).

As average US rents rose above $1,700 for the first time in June, Yardi Matrix said 25 of the top 30 metros it surveys notched YoY rent increases of at least 10%, GlobeSt.com reported. National occupancy rates remained solid in June, averaging 96%.

However, on a YoY basis, growth continued to slow, decelerating by 50 bps in June to 13.7%, about 130 bps off February’s peak of 15.2%. Yardi Matrix is forecasting that rents will increase at slower rates for the rest of 2022.

“The multifamily market [started] to show signs of deceleration in June but is still performing at extremely high levels,” the Yardi Matrix report said, noting that June was the fourth month in a row that YoY rent growth has declined.