Hard-hit rental markets like San Francisco have begun to rapidly rebound as the COVID-19 pandemic turns a corner, but more affordable mid-sized markets are continuing to boom, suggesting that rental markets are beginning to reflect a new post-COVID normal.  

While apartment rents are still down 19.5% over last year's numbers in San Francisco, prices are still up by 7% over the past two months, according to ApartmentList data. San Francisco logged a devastating 26.6% decline from March 2020 through January 2021, but since that time rents have gone up by 8.5%. And this trend is also playing out in nine of the ten cities with the sharpest year-over-year decreases tracked by the firm. And four of those cities — San Jose, Washington, D.C., Boston, and Minneapolis — have seen rents increasing for four consecutive months, according to ApartmentList.

"Rents are still well below pre-COVID levels, and it's possible that the steep upward trajectory could level out," the report notes. "But as of now, the rent rebound in pricey coastal superstar cities is happening sooner and more rapidly than we expected" – particularly in Boston, where prices have increased 12.4% this year.