Apartment rents are normalizing as more inventory hits the market, the Zumper listings platform said. The national median price for a one-bedroom apartment was $1,495 in April, flat month-over-month. Rents in Miami were on the rise as tenants sought luxury locations. Something is loading.
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Apartment rental prices have normalized across much of the United States this month, providing some stability for renters and homeowners while potentially mitigating high inflation.
April was the sixth consecutive month to see modest month-to-month changes in national rent prices, the Zumper listings platform said in its Rent Report on Wednesday.
For a one-bedroom apartment, the national median price of $1,495 has remained stable over the past month. For a two-bedroom unit, the national median price of $1,842 rose 0.5%.
“The roller coaster days of the pandemic – with wildly unpredictable price changes related to mass migration – are behind us,” Zumper said. File this under good news: Armed with a clearer picture of where prices are going, renters and landlords can better plan and budget for the future.
The company said prices remained relatively stable due to a record number of new rentals coming to market. However, the new inventory was still not enough to solve the housing shortage in the country.
The median rent for a room over the past month was down in 39 of the major cities tracked by Zumper. Prices in 35 cities were slightly higher while they were stable in 29 cities. The report also found that the median price for one-bedroom apartments rose 6% year-over-year, which is below double-digit increases for much of 2021 and 2022.
New York City ranked first in a list of median one-bedroom apartment prices at $3,570, followed by Jersey City, NJ, at $3,000. San Francisco came in third, also at $3,000. Miami replaced Boston in fourth place, at $2,840. This price is up 6% over the past month and 61% from January 2020, when the median rent for a room in Miami was $1,760.
“Miami’s new tenants are disproportionately interested in luxury amenities. Resort-style perks like concierge services, on-site restaurants, and free fitness classes are increasingly common in apartment communities. from Miami,” Zumper said.
The Federal Reserve has been watching housing data, which includes rents, to determine how to reduce inflation, which has been high for decades.
Rental prices rose further with the aggressive Fed interest rate hikes that began last year. As the policy tightened, bond yields and mortgage rates rose, forcing many potential buyers to delay purchases and pressure rental prices.
With interest rates still high and economic uncertainty simmering, competition for rentals remains high, Zumper said. The 30-year fixed mortgage rate rose to 6.55% last week, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association.
Meanwhile, the ad company also said much of the new inventory coming online was marketed as luxury placements. But he found that vacancy rates in luxury buildings were rising as tenants scaled back business because they worried about a slowing economy.
“This means that these new Class A properties coming to market in many cities will have a tougher rental period than originally anticipated, which will put downward pressure on luxury rental prices,” the CEO said. de Zumper, Anthemos Georgiades, in the April report.