National rent growth flipped back to positive in February for the first time since July 2024, according to the March report from Apartment List.
National rents fell 0.2% in January, a month that typically marks the bottom of the rental market each year, but then grew by 0.3 percent in February following six straight monthly declines.
Year-over-year national rent growth also remains negative at -0.4 percent, but is slowly inching back toward positive territory. In dollar terms, the national median monthly rent now stands at $1,375, up $4 per month compared to February but down $5 compared to February 2024, the Apartment List research team writes in the report.
At the local level, 75 of the nation’s 100 largest cities saw rents rise in February.
On a year-over-year basis, rent growth is now positive for a majority of large cities (58 of the top 100).
The Apartment List national index remains negative largely due to steeper declines in a concentrated set of Sun Belt metros that are rapidly expanding their multifamily inventory; these include Austin (-6.9 percent year-over-year), Denver (-4.7 percent), and Raleigh (-3.2 percent).
“Rent growth follows a seasonal pattern – prices tend to go up during the spring and summer and dip during the fall and winter,” the research team writes. “The end of the year, in particular, generally sees the slowest rental market activity as few households move during the holiday season.
“Demand tends to bounce back in the new year, gradually ramping up to peak season activity in the late spring and early summer. In keeping with that pattern, February saw a return to positive rent growth, with prices ticking up for the first time since last July.”
Multifamily vacancy rate hits 6.9%, a new peak
The rising vacancy rate in recent years is largely attributable to an influx of new multifamily inventory hitting the market.
“As new apartment completions decline, the vacancy index could begin to tighten again, but for now, we’re still seeing vacancies rise, even as rent declines gradually moderate,” the research team says.
List-to-Lease time retreats from all-time high
The slight decline in time-on-market in February is in line with the seasonal return to positive month-over-month rent growth.
“That said, this is still the highest time-on-market reading that we’ve seen in February of any year going back to the start of 2019, when the data series begins. Units are currently sitting vacant for three days longer than they were at this time last year, and for 10 days longer than they were in February 2022, when the market was just beginning to loosen. The influx of new supply is resulting not only in a growing number of vacant units, but also in an increase in the length of time those units remain unoccupied,” the research team writes.