Recent Report Shows Both Significant Spikes And Decline In Rental Markets Across The Country

Whether you live in a bustling city, sprawling suburb, or somewhere in between, it’s likely that you’ve been hearing more stories of people moving from expensive markets to more affordable zip codes.

The national pandemic, paired with more remote working and relatively high unemployment, are dramatically impacting where people are choosing to live.

How real and pronounced are these market shifts? It’s too early to paint a full picture.

However, a recent report from rental company Zumper illustrates the magnitude of changing rental rates in large and small markets across the country.

Here are a few of the key takeaways highlighted in the latest Zumper National Rent Report:

• In the most expensive cities, decreases in rent have accelerated meaningfully over the last year, particularly for one-bedroom apartments. For example, among the top 10 priciest markets, seven had a larger year-over-year percentage decrease than the month prior.
• In less expensive cities, rents have been increasing, with nine of the top ten cities decreasing median rent for one-bedrooms. Simply put, the pandemic is pushing the historically expensive cities to become cheaper while less expensive cities are becoming more expensive.
• Sacramento, Atlanta, and Fort Lauderdale are among the few cities in the top 20 rental markets to experience year-over-year growth for both one and two bedroom units.
• Markets with a large university presence, such as Syracuse and Madison, also appear to be facing rental declines, with one-bedroom rent falling 15.5% and 11.7%, year-over-over, respectively.
• Among the top 100 rental markets, 60 experienced year-over-year rent increases with nearly two dozen showing more than 10 percent rent increases.