Single-Family Rent Growth Slows to Pre-Pandemic Levels
Costs rose 3.4% in May with Chicago the biggest gainer.
Single-family rental metrics, including rent growth, have returned to levels last seen before the pandemic, according to CoreLogic.
Annual rents rose by 3.4% year over year in May, according to its latest Single-Family Rent Index, returning to the historical, more modest rate recorded in the decade before the pandemic.
Furthermore, rent growth for the lowest price tier was more than double that of the highest price tier.
Worth noting, since the start of the pandemic, single-family median rents increased by $470, or 30%, with Chicago posting the highest annual rent growth of tracked metro areas, at 6.6%.
CoreLogic’s report also suggested that single-family rents are poised to continue increasing throughout 2023.
“After increasing at an accelerated pace for more than two years, annual single-family rent growth returned to the pre-pandemic rate in May,” Molly Boesel, principal economist for CoreLogic, said in prepared remarks.
“High inflation may be affecting renters’ abilities to absorb continually higher monthly payments, which could be keeping year-over-year rent increases relatively low.
“However, even in the current economic environment, monthly single-family rent increases returned to a typical seasonal pattern in February of this year.”
But within the rental category, there are not one but three options, and they’re not equally desired, according to a recent analysis by John Burns Research and Consulting.
It found that of build-to-rent, scattered single-family rental homes, and apartment rents nationwide, the most stable is the SFR category, with the BTR and apartment rents showing more up and down movement.