Rents Continue Climbing Faster Than Pre-Pandemic Years
Apartment List says their national index rose by 1.3 percent over the course of June, “consistent with last month’s increase” but so far in 2022 “rents are growing more slowly than they did in 2021, but rents continue climbing faster than they did in the years immediately preceding the pandemic.”
In the June report, Apartment List says over the course of 2021 the median rent increase of 17.5 percent “is a key contributor to overall inflation, which is currently rising at its fastest pace in 40 years.1
“With inflation top-of-mind for policymakers and everyday Americans alike, our rent index is particularly relevant, since movements in market rents lead movements in average rents paid. As a result, these rent dynamics signal what is likely ahead for the housing component of the official inflation estimates produced by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Thankfully for the country’s renters, our index shows that rent growth in 2022 has cooled from last summer’s peaks. At the same time, however, rents are continuing to rise faster than they did in pre-pandemic years.”
Apartment List reports in the first six months of 2022, their national rent index has increased by 5.4 percent, well below last year’s 8.8 percent increase over the same months.
“However, this year’s pace is also still notably faster than that of the years prior to 2021. For comparison, rent growth from January to June totaled 3.1 percent in 2017, 3.6 percent in 2018, 3.4 percent in 2019, and -0.7 percent in 2020. The trend of rent growth is pacing well behind last summer’s scorching pace, but ahead of the pre-pandemic norm.”