Overview

1. As expected, rent dropped nationally in October. This is an annual trend.
2. Rent declines abound across the South.
3. Louisiana saw the biggest month-over-month rent drop at the state level.

National Trends

As we see every October, rent is down.

• The national median price of a one-bedroom apartment (now $1,510) decreased by 1.88% from September to October.
• The median rent for a one-bedroom apartment is down MoM by ≥1% in 44 key cities.
• For the last three years, we’ve seen national median rent prices decline by 1-2% from September to October.

Regional Trends

The Southeast

• On average, it’s about 5% cheaper to rent in the Southeast now than it was this time last year.
• The only cities that saw significant median asking rent increases (>1%) since October 2023 are Charleston, SC (+5% YoY) and Little Rock, AK (+7% YoY).

The Southwest

• In the Southwest, the average rent decrease across all rental markets that we track was 6% — and there is not a single city that we track where rent was more expensive this year than it was last year.
• The biggest year over year drops were seen in Texan cities: Corpus Christi (-14% YoY), Dallas (-10% YoY), Austin (-8% YoY), Houston (-8% YoY), and San Antonio (-5% YoY).
• In the Southwest, the median rent price for a one-bedroom apartment is lower than the national median in every city that we track.   

Rent at the State Level

• On a state level, we observed rent drops MoM in many Southern states as well. Louisiana had the biggest median rent price drop (-6%), followed by West Virginia (-3%) and Tennessee (-3%).