ApartmentAdvisor National Rent Report

This month’s report focuses on three key findings:

1. The national rental market in January 2024 held steady from December 2023. Renters on the apartment hunt continue to benefit from year-over-year declines in rent compared to the previous year.
2. The five most expensive cities for renters stayed consistent from December 2023 but have had very different rent trends over the past two years.
3. The states with the most rent-burdened households include some of the highest and lowest median rents.

Renters on the apartment hunt in January continue to encounter cheaper units than in the previous year.

Nationally, rent has stayed stable through the winter months, with the January 2024 median rent for a one-bedroom apartment ($1,385) just $6 higher than in December 2023. These rents continue to reflect a decrease in rent prices from last year, which were elevated by surges during inflation spikes in the summer of 2022. Median rent prices were 4.4% lower in January 2024 than in January 2023.

Adjusted for inflation, January rents are down 6.7% year over year and down 6.3% from two years ago. A decline in rent prices adjusted for inflation means that for the same amount of money, renters can afford higher-quality units than in the past two years. Looking at this longer time scale, current inflation-adjusted rents for apartments on the market are near two-year lows.

While rent prices for units on the market have been declining across the country, the average individual renter may not be benefitting from the recent declines. This is reflected in the discrepancy between what existing renters renewing leases face compared to renters hunting for new apartments.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics provides two indexes on rent costs: The consumer price index measures the average amount all consumers are spending each month, and the new tenant rent index measures the cost faced by renters that moved in that month. From Q4 2022 to Q4 2023, the BLS found an overall increase in average rent costs by 5.4%. (This metric is based on the Consumer Price Index for rent, a measure of the average change over time in the prices paid by urban consumers.) At the same time, it measured a 4.6% decrease in new tenant rent prices. ApartmentAdvisor data, which captures an even more up-to-date picture for listed apartments, indicates that these declines for the rental market have continued to hold through the new year; renters looking to start new leases in January face favorable conditions. But individual renters continuing their leases may be facing rent increases as landlords apply inflation adjustments to the new year’s leases.

The five most expensive rental markets are holding steady — but they each took a different path to get there.

Overall, the rental market held very steady from December to January — even on a local level. Two-thirds of cities we looked at had less than a 3% change in median rent from December to January. Even the most expensive cities (which tend to exhibit outlier trends) matched the national trend. The 10 most expensive cities averaged a month-over-month decrease in rent of 1.08%.

New York, NY, Jersey City, NJ, San Francisco, CA, Boston, MA, and Miami, FL held their places as the five most expensive cities to rent in the US. These five cities have consistently led the country in rent through the past several months. However, they have each faced very different rent trends throughout the past two years.

The trends in New York City and Jersey City closely mirrored each other over the past two years, with both cities experiencing substantial rent increases from January to June 2022 — marking the largest surges nationwide. During this period, New York City witnessed a 36.9% rise in rent, translating to a monthly increase of over $1,200 for the median one-bedroom apartment within six months. Faced with the challenge of affording these escalated rents in New York, tenants may have opted to relocate to Jersey City. (Although county-level data has not been released yet, the US Census Bureau found that 75,000 New Yorkers moved to New Jersey in 2022, compared to just 39,000 doing the reverse. A large portion of these migration flows were likely between Jersey City and New York City.) Consequently, Jersey City observed the highest percentage increase in rent from January to June 2022 across the country (114.5%), seeing the median rent for a one-bedroom apartment more than double within that six-month span. While rents in both cities have seen a slight decline in the past three months, they remain significantly higher than two years ago. In January 2024, New York City rents were 33.6% higher, and Jersey City rents were 92.1% higher compared to January 2022.

In contrast, Miami has experienced a much steeper decline in rents since its (more modest) 6% increase in rent from January to June 2022. A combination of people moving away from the area and an increase in inventory have resulted in declines in rental prices over the past year. Compared to January 2022, Miami’s median rent for a one-bedroom apartment was 6.6% lower.

Of these five cities, Boston has experienced the most traditional cyclical rent cycles over the past few years. As a college town, Boston rent tends to peak in the fall when students move into the city, and demand is likely more stable than in other cities because of the steady influx of students. New students are forced to find new housing in the fall regardless of how much rent increases, resulting in consistent year-over-year increases in rent.

Although San Francisco remains one of the most expensive rental markets, the rise in remote work among Bay Area tech workers resulted in much smaller rent increases during the summer of 2022 that were quickly reversed. Year-over-year rent prices for a one-bedroom decreased 1.2% from January 2023 to January 2024.