Multifamily Rent Increase With Hand Stacking Alphabet Blocks Higher

2018 Year Over Year Multifamily Rent Report

 
What city has the highest median rent? The lowest? Where are rents rising and where are they falling? These key questions, and more, were answered in a recent report by Apartment List. Here’s the quick answer to those questions:

  • Highest Median Rent: San Francisco, CA
  • Lowest Median Rent: Wichita, KS
  • Fastest Growing Rents: Orlando, FL
  • Fastest Declining Rents: Baltimore, MD

Discover where else rents are rising and falling plus the cities with the highest and lowest median rents in the below summary of the 2018 multifamily rent report. For more details on how the report was compiled, click here.

Cities with Increasing Rents

 
83 of the country’s largest cities experienced year over year rent growth from October 2017 to October 2018. Orlando, FL leads the way with median 1 and 2 bedroom rents increasing by 4.4% in the last year. Overall, 12 cities saw multifamily rent increases over 2.5% in the last year:

  1. Orlando, FL +4.4%
  2. Las Vegas, NV +3.6%
  3. Knoxville, TN +3.6%
  4. Corpus Christi, TX +3.1%
  5. Phoenix, AZ +3.0%
  6. Mesa, AZ +3.0%
  7. Riverside, CA +3.0%
  8. Arlington, TX +2.8%
  9. San Jose, CA +2.7%
  10. Jacksonville, FL +2.7%
  11. Tampa, FL +2.6%
  12. Richmond, VA +2.6%

In addition to these 12 cities, another 42 saw rents increase by at least 1.0% in the past year. Arizona saw the highest increase at the state level with year over year rents increasing by 2.6%.

Cities with Highest Median Rents

 
Four of the five cities with the highest median rents in the country are located in California. Leading the way is San Francisco, with median rents of $2,471 and $3,105 for 1 and 2 bedroom apartments. Here’s the top five from the multifamily rent report, along with median 1 and 2 bedroom rents:

  1. San Francisco, CA – $2,471/$3,105
  2. San Jose, CA – $2,102/$2,634
  3. New York, NY – $2,119/$2,524
  4. Oakland, CA – $1,791/$2,250
  5. Anaheim, CA – $1,651/$2,122

All five of these cites report year over year rent growth of at least 1.2%. Of the five, San Jose had the highest growth with median rents increasing 2.7% in the last year.

Cities with Declining Rents

 
While many cities are seeing year over year rent growth, 17 major cities saw rents decline over the past year. Of the 17 cities with declining rents, only 5 experienced rent declines of at least 1.0%. Baltimore, MD led the way with rents declining by 1.6% year over year:

  1. Baltimore, MD -1.6%
  2. Seattle, WA -1.3%
  3. Buffalo, NY -1.3%
  4. Portland, OR -1.1%
  5. New Orleans, LA -1.0%

In real dollars, the median rent on a 1 bedroom apartment in Baltimore decreased by $15.06 per month. For a 2 bedroom apartment the median rent decreased by $18.90 per month. While only 17 cities experienced declining rents, the positive growth rate in 33 cities was less than 1.0%.

Cities with Lowest Median Rents

 
Bargain hunters will look to relocate to Wichita, KS, home of the lowest median rents in the country. Even better, rents in Wichita only increased 0.4% over the past year. Here are the five cities with the lowest median rents, plus the going rates for 1 and 2 bedroom units.

  1. Wichita, KS – $561/$745
  2. Toledo, OH – $589/$771
  3. Fort Wayne, IN – $598/$760
  4. Fayetteville, NC – $621/$768
  5. Oklahoma City, OK – $628/$803

Of the list, only Toledo, OH saw rents decline in the last year. While the remaining four cities saw year over year rents increase, it was nominal in all but Fort Wayne, IN where rent increased 1.2% year over year. Interestingly, these states are some of the better paying when it comes to multifamily property management jobs. In fact, all but Indiana rank in the top 20 highest paying states for property managers.