What a difference one month makes. From the fourth quarter 2022 to the first quarter 2023, the number of US primary metros still experiencing higher rent burdens plummeted from 49 metros down to only five, a 91% drop. RTI – the percentage of gross income a median-income tenant pays for the average monthly rent – finally cooled after more than three years of steepening rates nationwide, Moody's Analytics has announced. 

Rent burdened is defined as a typical household paying 30% or more of its income to rent; severely rent burdened means the percentage goes up to 50% and the number of renters that fall in these categories is finally starting to ease.

The news has been long awaited and is significant. "The fever is finally breaking," wrote Lu Chen, Senior Economist, and Mary Le, Economist, of Moody's Analytics. According to them, "Since Q4 2019, 82% of metros had higher rent-burdens compared to pre-Covid because rent disproportionately rose faster than incomes."