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By Giulia Carbonaro
Senior Reporter
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While rents dropped for the ninth straight month at the national level in April, three cities in the Midwest reported record highs, according to a new report from Realtor.com.
In Indianapolis, Indiana, the median asking rent was up 4.5 percent last month, compared to a year earlier, to $1,334. In Milwaukee, Wisconsin, it was up 3.8 percent to $1,671. In Minneapolis, Minnesota, it was up 2.5 percent to $1,529. For all the three cities, these were the highest median asking rent levels since March 2019.
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The increases in rent in Indianapolis, Milwaukee and Minneapolis are being driven by below-average unemployment rates and the slow pace of new multihome construction, Realtor.com wrote. Other cities in the Midwest, including Cincinnati, Cleveland and Chicago, might hit similar record highs this summer, according to the website.
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This upward trend is going against what is happening at the national level, where the median asking rent for apartments with up to two bedrooms fell by minus 0.7 percent last month compared to a year earlier, to $1,723, and dropped across all size categories, the real-estate listing website wrote. Despite the steady decline, rents are just $33 (minus 1.9 percent) lower than the peak reached in August 2022.
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"In the ever-fluctuating real estate market, renters will find that trends vary significantly by location," Danielle Hale, chief economist at Realtor.com, said in a press release shared with Newsweek.
"Renters in some historically expensive areas are seeing lower prices compared to what they would have paid at the peak of the market, while many relatively affordable markets are witnessing a continued rise in rental costs to new highs, and the scales could tip to even more markets later this summer," Hale added.
The other metropolitan areas where the median asking rent increased in April compared to a year earlier were: Birmingham-Hoover, Alabama (+1.5 percent to $1,299); Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, Illinois-Indiana-Wisconsin (+1.4 percent to $1,834); Cincinnati, Ohio-Kentucky-Indiana (+1.0 percent to $1,354); Cleveland-Elyria, Ohio (+2.1 percent to $1,210); Detroit-Warren-Dearborn, Michigan (+0.6 percent to $1,290); New York-Newark-Jersey City, New York-New Jersey-Pennsylvania (+4.1 percent to $2,876); Oklahoma City, Oklahoma (+0.5 percent to $1,006); Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington, Pennsylvania-New Jersey-Delaware-Maryland (+1.5 percent to $1,813); Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (+1.6 percent to $1,474); Sacramento-Roseville-Folsom, California (+3.0 percent to $1,953); San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, California (+3.7 percent to $3,318); Virginia Beach-Norfolk-Newport News, Virginia-North Carolina (+2.4 percent to $1,518); and Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, District of Columbia, Virginia, Maryland and West Virginia (+1.3 percent to $2,225).
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In the same month, rents continued falling in the South and the West of the country, with Austin, Texas, seeing the biggest savings. The median asking rent in the city was $1,494 in April, down $195 or 11.5 percent from its September 2022 peak—the largest percentage saving compared to the market's peak among the 50 biggest metropolitan areas in the country.
The second-biggest savings was reported in Las Vegas, Nevada, where rent was down 11.1 percent from the June 2022 peak.
Update, 5/22/24 7:30 a.m. ET: This breaking news article was updated with more information on the Realtor.com report.
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