16 cities with significant rental savings as apartment prices remain high

• There are as many apartments as ever, but rents remained at record highs in October.
• Robust demand offset a significant increase in supply.
• Here are 16 real estate markets where renters can save big.

Record high rental inventory is not leading to a drop in once-high apartment prices.

The average rent for one-bedroom apartments was $1,534 in October, corresponding to the peak price set in Augustaccording to a new report from real estate site Zumper. That is virtually unchanged from September’s $1,533 pricealthough this is 1.9% higher than the average price of a year ago.

Two-bedroom setups were going for about $1,910 in the nation’s 100 largest real estate markets, just a few dollars lower than last month and 2.6% higher than October 2023.

Zumper

The supply of apartments has reached unprecedented levels thanks to a strong increase in the number of new rental properties, Zumper discovered. Although this has kept rents from becoming even more expensive, it has not driven prices in the direction of tenants recent report from Rentometer approximately third quarter rental certificates.

The explanation for this dynamic comes straight from ECON 101: prices have changed little as demand has risen along with supply.

Although renting is expensive, many believe it still makes more sense than buying, especially since then Mortgage rates have seen an uptick recently. Furthermore, renters can apparently afford to pay in a healthy economy characterized by… solid GDP growthresilient consumer spending, low unemployment rateAnd strong addition of jobswhich just reached their highest figure since last July.

Freddie Mac

“Sustained high demand can be linked to several economic factors, including low unemployment, declining inflation and sustained wage growth,” Zumper CEO Anthemos Georgiades said in a statement for the report.

16 cities where rent is reasonable

While rents are stubbornly high nationally, there are several cities among the 100 largest rental markets where apartments are becoming increasingly affordable.

Below are the 16 markets where rent was at least $200 cheaper than the national average price of $1,534 in October and as much as 3% cheaper than a year ago. Each city also includes year-over-year and month-over-month rent changes and average rent, savings compared to the national median, and the city’s ranking among the top 100 U.S. real estate markets.