Rent Prices Move Higher Rapidly — Strong Recovery Underway

Zillow®, the Seattle-based, online real estate marketplace company, revealed in their latest housing market report that a strong and widespread recovery of rents has pushed prices beyond where they would have been had the COVID-19 pandemic never have occurred. Rent growth continued to build on momentum that began in March of 2021, following a period of sluggishness that started with the COVID-19 outbreak in 2020.

Nationally, typical monthly rents rose to $1,843 in July, surpassing June’s record appreciation and rising 9.2%, or $156, above July 2020. Zillow estimates rents are now $52 higher than they would have been if the past 18 months had been more normal. Rents first surpassed their pre-pandemic trajectory last month.

Rents in nine major metropolitan areas, all across the Sun Belt, are at least 10% higher than would have been expected based on pre-pandemic trends, topping out at 15.6% higher in Tampa. Rents in just nine metros are lower than projected, and nearly all are expensive coastal markets: Los Angeles; Washington, D.C.; Chicago; Minneapolis; Seattle; Boston; New York; San Francisco; and San Jose.

In remarks prepared for the release of the report, Nicole Bachaud, Zillow economic data analyst said, “With the economy continuing to reopen, employees receiving more long-term guidance on remote work, and as students find their way back to college campuses, the rental market is picking back up. As high demand puts pressure on rents and incomes are unable to keep up, affordability will become more of a challenge in the coming months.”