Rent growth declined to below 1% last month, only the second time since the 2010 Great Recession. And it could head down further in the next few months, according to a post by RealPage Chief Economist Jay Parsons. But he expects the rent growth slowdown to level off relatively soon. He explains: 

On a month-over-month basis, asking rents have actually risen in every month this year so far, Parsons writes, noting that the year-over-year rent change is cooling quickly because 2023′s increases are so far below 2022′s. "So we're replacing big numbers with smaller numbers in the more closely watched year-over-year calculation." For example, year-over-year rent growth hit 0.78%, the lowest figure since July 2010. A year ago in July 2022, the rent growth had been a much higher 12.25%.

"That math starts to change going forward, as rents dropped much more than seasonal norms between September 2022 to December 2022, Parsons writes. "That suggests, in turn, the year-over-year change numbers should drop off again in August and maybe September before leveling off (to some degree)."