Renter urgency may be poised to rise after more than two years of historically low pressure, according to a new analysis from Apartment List that tracks how quickly renters plan to move when beginning their search.
Its findings are based on aggregated responses to the question "how important is your move-in date?" which users answer when signing up on the Apartment List platform. Since 2022, the share of renters indicating low urgency has steadily increased, mirroring a period of falling rents, rising vacancy and intense competition among landlords.
Apartment List attributed those soft conditions largely to a surge of new multifamily supply that flooded the market in recent years, shifting leverage toward renters and allowing them to take more time evaluating options. During much of this period, property owners have been competing to attract, rather than tenants scrambling to secure limited inventory.
That dynamic may be changing. Apartment List identified a potential inflection point in late 2025, when the share of renters searching with low urgency began to edge down. Low urgency peaked at 54.4% in September 2025, up from 46.8% in early to mid-2022 and above the pandemic-era high of 52.1% in 2020. By December, however, the share had declined modestly to 53.8%, suggesting a gradual shift in renter behavior.
On average, renters classified as low-urgency begin their search roughly three months before their anticipated move-in date. High-urgency renters typically plan to move within about six weeks and tend to set higher budgets, reflecting reduced flexibility in both timing and price.
Search urgency continues to vary significantly by market. The lowest urgency levels are concentrated in Sun Belt metros, where a wave of multifamily deliveries has left renters with abundant choices. San Antonio ranked first nationally, with 58.6% of Apartment List users searching with low urgency.
Rents in the metro are down 4.7% year-over-year, the fifth-steepest decline among large metros, with vacancy standing at 9.5%, well above the national average of 7.3%. Other markets with low urgency, including Denver and Phoenix, are similarly shaped by strong supply growth.
At the opposite end, Chicago posted the lowest share of low-urgency renters at 50.5%. The metro ranks sixth nationally for rent growth, with rents up 4.3% year-over-year and vacancy remains tight at 5.2%. Higher urgency is also common across the Northeast, including Boston, New York and Washington, D.C., where construction has been limited and competitive conditions persist.
Apartment List emphasized that core fundamentals remain soft for now. However, the construction boom has passed its peak, and the pace of new deliveries has slowed materially.
"With fewer options and deals available from new properties in their lease-up phases, renters may be starting to feel just a bit more pressure," the report said.
"The recent increase in urgency could be a leading indicator for tightening conditions to come later this year."
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