Thursday, January 28, 2016

By John Voket Since I began paying more attention to national rental trends a couple of years ago, the markets have been subject to significant fluctuations.

The latest news comes to us from the Apartment List National Rent Report, which recently noted that the average rental prices are increasing at a slower rate in many cities across the United States.

Apartment List RPM data is drawn from several hundred thousand monthly listings, and reports cover rental pricing data in major cities, their suburbs, and their neighborhoods.

According to the latest data, nationwide, average rents increased by 3.6 percent for a 1 bedroom and 2.6 percent for a 2 bedroom between December 2014 and December 2015. Those numbers reflect a month-over-month decrease of 0.3 percent for 1 bedroom units and 0.4 percent for 2 bedroom units.

Cities on the coasts continue to be the nation’s most expensive, as the Eastern seaboard, California, and the Pacific Northwest all make it into the Top 10 Cities with Highest Rents on Apartment List National Rent Report.

Some areas of interest include:

• San Francisco: Once again, San Francisco takes a commanding lead as the most expensive city in the nation for 2 bedroom rents, averaging $4610 for the month of December. 2 bedroom rents in San Francisco have grown 5.5 percent over the past year, in comparison to a nationwide average of 2.6 percent.
• Washington, D.C.: Washington DC is the nation’s third most expensive city with 2 bedroom units now averaging $2800, down 0.9 percent over last December. DC rents have been steadily declining for over a year now.
• Boston, Mass.: Boston ranks as the 4th most expensive city in the nation with a median 2 bedroom price of $2650. Rent prices there have dropped 1.3 percent since last month, but have increased by 0.9 percent year over year.

Notable cities from the interior that barely missed the cut include Chicago (No. 12), Dallas (No. 13), Denver (No. 14), Minneapolis (No. 15), and Austin (No. 20). Looking at the National Rent Report's top cities with the fastest growing rents:

• Vancouver, Wash. had the second largest increase in rents nationwide with a 16.7 percent increase over last year. A 2 bedroom apartment in Vancouver now costs $1,100.
• Portland, Ore., came in 5th place for highest rent increases over last year with 2 bedroom prices up 8.9 percent over the last year, which means they are growing 3 times more quickly than national averages. A 2 bedroom in Portland averages $1,530.
• Charlotte, N.C. came in just behind Louisville, claiming the number 10 spot for fastest growing rents at 6.5 percent over December 2014. A 2 bedroom in Charlotte runs $1,000.

Learn more at apartmentlist.com/rentonomics/national-rent-data/

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