ApartmentAdvisor National Rent Report

This month’s report focuses on three key findings:

1. An expected uptick in rent in cities across the country this month aligns with the typical summer surge that peak renting season brings.
2. Southeastern cities are seeing the biggest drops in rent year-over-year, despite the region’s continued growth.
3. The Midwest saw month-over-month rent increases in more states than any other region.

Nationally, rent prices are heating up as the country enters peak renting season.

Right now, a spring swell in rent prices is making way for a summer surge.

Summer is historically the busiest rental season in the U.S. The weather is warmer and more favorable for touring and moving into apartments (meaning landlords may be less likely to offer rent concessions or move-in specials), graduation brings with it new demand from young professionals ready to start their lives, and school vacation gives families a prime time to take on big projects like relocating. The result is a hectic — and pricy — rental season, lasting roughly from April to August.

Out of 93 cities for which we had adequate inventory, 49 showed month-over-month increases in three of the four apartment size categories that we analyze for this report (studios, one-bedroom, two-bedroom, and three-bedroom apartments). Of those, 9 saw MoM increases in rent price across all apartment sizes: Albuquerque, NM; Columbus, OH; Denver, CO; Des Moines, IA; Indianapolis, IN; Madison, WI; Milwaukee, WI; New York, NY; and Philadelphia, PA.

Studio apartments overall saw the biggest rent increases, with the median national rent increasing 2.1% to land at $1,575 in April. One-bedroom apartments were close behind, with a one-month increase of 1.6%, landing at a median price of $1,511.

However, the story of the post-pandemic rent drop on the city level still holds true in April. Well over half of the cities that we looked at had year-over-year rent drops for one-bedroom apartments when compared with April 2023, and only 30 cities showed rent increases year over year.

Regional deep dive: Southeastern cities see significant rent swings since last year.

Not only is the South the most populous region in the U.S., it’s also one of the fastest growing — and Southeastern cities are responsible for a lot of that recent growth due to their relative affordability and plentiful economic opportunities. However, despite its continuous red-hot popularity, the region is cooling off when it comes to rent prices.

Of the 60 cities that saw year-over-year one-bedroom rent drops, 33 were located in the South — with the Southeast seeing the biggest decreases. A total of 20 Southeastern cities had lower one-bedroom rents in 2024 when compared with this time last year, and Raleigh, NC, Huntsville, AL, Birmingham, AL, Greensboro, NC, Atlanta, GA, Nashville, TN, and Orlando, FL all saw year-over-year rent decreases larger than 12%.

One reason for this rent drop could be that new housing construction is meeting demand more adequately in the South than in other U.S. regions. Since 2020, the South has seen more than double (and sometimes as much as triple) the number of new privately-owned housing units completed each month when compared with the Midwest, West, and Northeast regions, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Another could be that relatively affordable home prices allow renters to save up enough to purchase a home, thus freeing up rental properties.