ApartmentAdvisor National Rent Report

This month’s report focuses on three key findings:

1. The year started off with lower rent prices when looking at the national level.
2. Los Angeles is reckoning with the effects of the tragic wildfires from earlier in January.
3. Connecticut saw the biggest MoM rent drop at the state level.

The Big Picture: National median rent prices are down MoM across all apartment sizes, but will likely begin climbing again soon.

The new year kicked off with lower median rent prices in the U.S.: The national median rent prices for studio apartments ($1,488, -4% MoM), one-bedrooms ($1,450, -3% MoM), two-bedrooms ($1,595, -0.3% MoM), and three-bedrooms ($1,900, -1.7% MoM) were all down when compared with December 2024. Since August, we’ve continuously seen the national median rent prices decreasing month over month across all apartment sizes. However, don’t be surprised if you see an uptick next month.

This is an annual trend. We typically see rent prices plummet in January, steadily climb back up for about six consecutive months until they hit their peak in July, and then slowly fall back down again.

When looking at year-over-year trends, the national figures look relatively stable: The median rent price for a one-bedroom apartment is only 0.4% higher than this time last year.

Regional Spotlight: How will Los Angeles rent prices react to a depleted housing stock?

On January 7, a series of wildfires began in Southern California, burning tens of thousands of acres and requiring over 200,000 residents to evacuate their home. The first and largest fire began in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood, and just hours later, the second largest fire (the Eaton fire) erupted in a national forest just north of Altadena. The fires were exacerbated by severe drought conditions and the intense Santa Ana winds, which can reach hurricane speeds. By the end of January, a total of eight wildfires were reported in Los Angeles County — though all but the largest three (the Palisades fire, the Eaton fire, and the Hughes fire just north of Santa Clarita) have now been fully contained. It’s been estimated that nearly 18,000 structures have been destroyed as a result of the fires.

To better understand the impacts of the fires on rental prices, we analyzed median rent prices for one-bedroom apartments at the neighborhood level across the city of L.A. before and after the fires, using available inventory on our site.

We found that median prices only increased in 30 of the 75 Los Angeles neighborhoods that we looked at. Unsurprisingly, median asking rent prices rose the most in the housing markets closest to the fires (Pacific Palisades, West Hills, Porter Ranch, Sylmar, Northridge), likely due to the sharp decrease in inventory and the desire of displaced families to find a new living situation close to their old home. The neighborhoods closest to Downtown Los Angeles, like Echo Park, Westlake, and Chinatown, had much smaller rent increases. It’s unclear if and when the rental market in Los Angeles will normalize; for a daily rent price update, refer to our Los Angeles Market Report.