Are multifamily rents growing or shrinking? According to Apartment List's latest national rent report, the answer is both.

On the one hand, rent prices are up for the sixth straight month. In July, prices were up 0.2% over June and the national median rent stands at $1,414. On the other, year-over-year rent dipped 0.8% and was in negative territory for a year. And yet, the average rent is more than $200 a month, greater than it was before the huge jump from 2021 to 2022.

The firm also notes that this is the likely end of normal seasonality rental growth for the year, so rent growth could turn flat or negative in August and remain so through the end of 2024. Seasonal declines have been steeper and increases milder since the second half of 2022. Whether this is a temporary change or a permanent one is impossible to know yet.