The national median asking rent last month was $2,038—just $16 below the record high set in August 2022, according to Redfin. The median asking rent was up just 0.3 percent from a year earlier in July, compared with a 13.6 percent annual gain in July 2022.
In the West, the median asking rent fell 1.1 percent year-over-year to $2,451 last month, while all other regions saw rent increases. The median rent in the South rose 0.3 percent to $1,674—the smallest increase since 2020. By comparison, asking rents were up 4.6 percent to a record $2,533 in the Northeast and up 4.3 percent to a record $1,416 in the Midwest.
“While rents are flattening out, it’s too early to say whether rent growth has bottomed,” said Redfin Deputy Chief Economist Taylor Marr. “A strong job market, cooling inflation and increasing consumer spending—which have decreased the likelihood of a recession—point to resilient renter demand. But there are still a lot of newly built apartments that have yet to hit the market, meaning rents may still have room to fall as landlords grapple with rising vacancies.”