Amid strong demand in the slow sales market, rents continued to fall last month, according to new numbers out from Realtor.com. In September, the U.S. median rent continued to see a year-over-year decline for the fifth month in a row, down 0.7 percent for studio-two bedroom properties across the top 50 metros. The median asking rent in the 50 largest metros dropped to $1,747, down by $5 from last month and down $29 from the peak one year ago.
However, nationally the median rent is still $338 higher than the same time in 2019, a pre-pandemic high.
The report found that the median rent in Los Angeles last month was $2,887, an annual decline of 3.4 percent. The median rent in San Bernardino/Riverside was $2,316, down 1.6 percent. And in San Diego, rents fell 2 percent year-over-year to $2,891.
In September 2023, the annual completion rate of multi-family buildings with five or more units stood at 445,000 units, which increased 10.1 percent month-over-month and 15 percent annually. According to the Census Survey of Market Absorption of New Multifamily Units (SOMA), the first quarter of 2023 saw the completion of 82,310 apartments in buildings featuring five or more units.