In terms of effective asking rent increases, the Midwest is doing fairly well at 2.8% for the year ending February when stacked up against the US average of 0.2%. But dig deeper into the region and you'll find markets that outperform the regional average. That is what RealPage has done, identifying Fargo, ND, which at 5.4% tied with Champaign-Urbana in the No. 8 spot nationally, as a market to watch.

It's a small market: Fargo has a population of around 259,000 and less than 38,000 existing apartment units. During the pandemic, Fargo didn't experience the massive rent change increases that many off-the-beaten track cities, such as Boise, did, never venturing into double-digit annual rent growth. RealPage notes that the market's recent rent increase was well ahead of its pre-pandemic average of just 1.1% between 2015 and 2019.

Because of its relatively small size, supply has been limited, which has helped drive rent growth. For that reason, occupancy has been tight, averaging 96% over the past five years and registering at 95.5% as of February 2024, RealPage says.