Median rent grew for the second consecutive month in March, although year-over-year growth remains negative, according to Apartment List’s April 2025 national rent report. Rents rose 0.6% month over month to $1,384, an $8 per month increase, but are down 0.4% from March 2024.
Rent growth has fluctuated seasonally since the second half of 2022, but the overall trajectory has trended mostly downward, according to Apartment List. Rents remain below their August 2022 peak by 4% but still 20% above the January 2021 levels. In dollar terms, the national median rent today is $5 per month cheaper than one year ago and $58 per month less than in August 2022, but it remains $237 per month higher than the January 2021 level.
The company’s national vacancy index is now at 6.9%, the highest reading in the data series dating back to 2017. An influx of new inventory, including a 40-year high number of completions last year and 750,000 units in the construction pipeline, has helped ease multifamily occupancy slowly since 2021.
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Eighty-two of the nation’s 100 largest cities saw rents increase in March, and rent growth is now positive for most large cities, according to Apartment List. However, the firm’s national index remains negative due to steeper declines in Sun Belt metros that have rapidly expanded their multifamily inventory, including Austin, Dever, and Raleigh.
At the other end of the spectrum, Fresno currently has the nation’s fastest rent growth, with a 6.1 percent increase over the past year – the only large metro to see rents rise by more than 5% over the past year. The remainder of the top 10 includes pricey coastal markets like Washington, D.C., and San Jose and more affordable Midwestern markets including Chicago and Cleveland.
There are signs that a return to positive year-over-year growth is on the horizon. Rent growth bottomed out at -1.4% in September 2023 before stabilizing at -0.8% through most of 2024. It is back on the rise in early 2025, just as the supply wave moves past its peak.
Median time on the market for March was 34 days, down from 36 days in February, according to the report. Apartment List said this aligns with the seasonal return to positive month-over-month rent growth but is still the longest-time on-market reading it has observed since the start of 2019.
“Units are currently sitting vacant for three days longer than they were at this time last year and for 10 days longer than they were in March 2022 when the market was just beginning to loosen,” said the report. “The influx of new supply is resulting not only in a growing number of vacant units but also in an increase in the length of time those units remain unoccupied.”
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Kristen Smithberg
Kristen Smithberg is a Colorado-based freelance writer who covers commercial real estate, insurance, benefits and retirement topics for BenefitsPRO and other industry publications.
