Apartment rents have fallen to minus 0.7%, based on Apartmentlist.com's most recent estimates for July of this year. This is the first year-over-year price drop the market has experienced since the beginning of COVID-19.

But the decline has been uneven ever since the pandemic, when a gap has appeared between core and suburban cities. Rapid rent increases were concentrated in the suburbs, reflecting the surge in new residents as many fled cities. Little inventory could be found at times and rents went up, no surprise. Rents in cities also climbed but later and moved slower. Specifically, the suburban rents climbed 27% between March 2020 and July 2022 while core city rents went up just 20%, still significant but less.

Now a year later, rent growth is 25% in the suburbs and 18% in cities, both down but only a small decline. In many markets, this gap is widening.  More important perhaps is that an affordability windfall is not coming to those living in the suburbs since the decline is less and slower.