Think Your Rent Is Too High? Rents Have Actually Been Falling for Nearly a Year—See Where They Plunged the Most

Think your rent is just too damn high? Here’s a shocking reality check: Rents have actually been falling annually every month for nearly a year.

Rents in America have declined year over year for the past 11 months in a row, according to a new Realtor.com® report. The median asking rent in the 50 largest metros for June was $1,743, which is $7 less than what renters paid in June 2023.

Yet, although rentals are becoming more affordable, it’s not by much. The U.S. median rent is just $11 (or 0.6%) lower than its peak in August 2022. However, rental prices have dropped in more pronounced ways in certain markets, so apartment hunters might feel some palpable relief in their pocketbooks depending on where they’re searching.

Where rents are down the most annually

Rents plummeted the most in Austin, TX, where renters paid 9.5% less per month than they did a year ago, plunking down an average of $1,481 a month.

Following Austin was San Antonio, TX, with June prices falling 8.2% year over year, to a median of $1,234 per month. Nashville, TN, came in third, with rents plummeting by 8.1% annually, to a median of $1,525 per month.

“The markets with the most significant year-over-year declines were all in the South,” notes Realtor.com economist Jiayi Xu in her analysis. “This trend is unsurprising given the substantial increase in new rental supplies in these areas.”

But rental prices have shot up since COVID-19

Although rental prices are down from a year ago, they’re still up since the COVID-19 pandemic.

In June, renters paid an average of $305 more in rent per month than they did in 2019. That’s a whopping 21.2% increase, but it’s roughly on par with what has occurred in overall consumer prices, which shot up 22.6% in the past five years.

On average, two-bedroom units were up by $363 (23.0%), one-bedroom units were up by $264 (19.5%), and studios were up by $219 (17.6%) since June 2019.

Even though that price increase is astronomical, Xu says it still pales in comparison with the 52.6% increase in the median price per square foot of for-sale home listings in the past five years ending June 2024.

The one place where rents are down since pre-pandemic

San Francisco, CA, is the only metro area among the top 50 where current rent prices are lower than they were five years ago.

Renters pay $153 less per month on average there than they did in June 2019, which represents a 5.2% savings.

San Francisco saw significant rent declines in this time period because people moved away from expensive tech hubs during the pandemic, according to Xu.

Even so, rents there are still $2,784 on average per month.