(Finally) some good news for renters: the median asking rent fell 0.4 percent in March to the lowest level in 13 months. For some perspective, rents were up 17.5 percent one year earlier, in March 2022, according to Redfin.
The median U.S. asking rent was $1,937 in March—unchanged from February. It remained $322 higher (19.9 percent) than it was at the onset of the pandemic three years earlier.
Redfin notes that rents declined from a year earlier in March largely due to a surplus of supply resulting from the pandemic homebuilding boom. Completed residential projects in buildings with five or more units jumped 72 percent to 509,000, the highest level since 1987 with the exception of February 2019.
Back to the declines, rents slid the most in Austin, Chicaco and New Orleans, with Austin down the most at 11 percent. Sacramento was the only California city in the top 10, down 2.8 percent.
Raleigh, Cleveland and Charlotte saw the largest rent hikes, up 16.6 percent, 15.3 percent and 13 percent, respectively.