Overview

1. Rent took another small dip month-over-month in January, but expect an uptick in February.
2. In Los Angeles, some neighborhoods are seeing skyrocketing prices in the wake of the tragic January 2025 wildfires.
3. Connecticut saw the biggest MoM rent drop at the state level.

National Trends

Rent is down in January, but expect it to start climbing back up in February.

• The national median price of a one-bedroom apartment (now $1,450) decreased by 3% from December to January.
• 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 Trends

The West Coast

• 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. 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 Los Angeles before and after the fires, using available inventory on our site.
• Median prices only increased in 30 of the 75 Los Angeles neighborhoods that we looked at. Prices rose the most in the housing markets closest to the fires (Pacific Palisades, West Hills, Porter Ranch, Sylmar, Northridge).
• 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.

Rent at the State Level

• Rent is down across Connecticut at the state level (-5.1% MoM), while other nearby Northeastern states are battling sizable increases.
• Vermont had the biggest monthly jump (+9.7% MoM).
• Prices in Maine (+3.7% MoM), New Jersey (+2.9% MoM), New York (+0.5% MoM), Pennsylvania (+0.4%), and New Hampshire (+0.1%) are all up this month as well.