Steady is the Trend in Single-Family Rent Growth

National single-family rental growth leveled off in April, with year-over-year gains remaining in the same range they have been for most of the past year at 3 percent.

Only the highest price tier – encompassing properties priced at 125 percent or more of the regional median – logged an increase from April of last year, according to CoreLogic’s latest Single-Family Rent Index (SFRI), which analyzes single-family rent price changes nationally and across major metropolitan areas. Rents in this category were up 3.2 percent in April, compared with 1.8 percent in April 2023.

Rents in the lower-priced tier were up 3.1 percent, down from 6 percent in April 2023, while rents in the lower-middle priced tier were up 3.5 percent, down from 4.2 percent last year, and rents in the higher-middle tier were up 3.3 percent, down from 3.6 percent in April last year.

“Annual single-family rent growth has solidified over the past few months, increasing at roughly the long-term trend,” said Molly Boesel, principal economist for CoreLogic. “However, monthly single-family rent growth gained momentum and was higher than usual for April. At the current rate, rents are poised to grow by roughly 3 percent through the end of 2024.”

St. Louis – the least expensive of the tracked markets with a March median monthly rent of $1,616 – posted the highest year-over-year single-family rental increase at 6.3 percent, followed by New York at 5.6 percent and Boston at 5.4 percent. The top five markets for rental gains had monthly rental costs of more than $3,200, the CoreLogic report said.

On the other end of the spectrum, Miami and Austin posted annual rental price losses, highlighting a subset of markets in Florida and Texas as well as New Orleans and Phoenix that are experiencing rental-price decreases year-over-year.

Attached rentals such as condominiums experienced depreciation year over year for the second month in a row – down 0.5 percent vs. a gain of 3.3 percent last year – which could be related to the completion of multifamily apartments leading to increased rental supply competing with the attached segment of the single-family market. Meanwhile, detached rental growth was slightly stronger than the national average, signaling that Americans may favor properties that provide more personal space, but the high cost of home ownership is keeping some households in single-family rentals.