ApartmentAdvisor National Rent Report

The national median rent for a one-bedroom apartment was $1,545 in August, down 0.3% from July and down 3.4% from a year ago. At a regional level, the picture is more mixed: rents are up year-over-year in San Francisco and much of the Northeast, while many southern cities are down, along with a couple of key Mountain West metros like Phoenix and Denver.

• National Median Rent (1BR): $1,545 as of August 2026, down 0.3% ($5) from July and down 3.4% from a year ago.
• Cities Rising vs. Falling: Median rent prices in 51 of the 100 cities we track are up year over year, versus 41 down, though the most recent month leaned softer (37 up, 47 down month over month).
• Fastest-Growing Major Market: San Francisco, up 28.2% year over year to $4,295, a $945 increase from a year ago.

The national median rent for a one-bedroom apartment was down 3.4% year over year in August. However, counted city by city, more of our 100 tracked cities actually grew than shrank over the past year: 51 are up year over year, against 41 down (11 were unchanged and 5 had insufficient data). So the softness behind the national decline is still concentrated in a smaller group of markets, not spread evenly across the country.

San Francisco's rent keeps climbing, up 28% in the past year

San Francisco's median rent for a one bedroom apartment reached $4,295 in August, up 28.2% year over year, about $945 more than renters were paying a year ago. The city has now held the most expensive spot in our 100-city ranking for several months running. In August, it cost more than $450 more to rent a one-bedroom apartment in San Francisco compared to New York City, the second most expensive city in our rankings (and formerly the most expensive).

The driver here isn't exactly a surprise, it's been one of the most-reported stories in real estate all year: AI-sector hiring landing in a city that added very little new apartment supply during the years rents were falling. Apartment vacancy has fallen to its lowest level since before the pandemic, according to CoStar, as job growth continues to outpace new construction. With few vacancies left to absorb new demand, asking rents have kept climbing.

Texas remains the softest rental market in the country

Texas is the clearest case of ongoing price weakness: five of the seven Texas cities we track are down year over year, with typical declines in the mid-single digits. The trend traces back to a pandemic-era construction boom, documented in a Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas study, that left major Texas metros with more units than renters to fill.

Still, some rental housing economists have reported the pace of Texas's declines easing in 2026, even in some of the hardest-hit markets, as new construction slows and demand catches up. Reporting on the same construction cycle suggests Texas completions are set to drop sharply compared to the past two years, an early sign the supply wave may be starting to recede.

Outside Texas, the same oversupply dynamic shows up in two specific Western metros rather than as a regional pattern: Phoenix and Denver are both still seeing meaningful declines that echo Texas's story, even though the broader Mountain West is actually up-leaning overall (six of the ten cities we track there are up year over year, only four are down). Smaller markets in the region, like Boise and Reno, are posting gains.