U.S. Rents Post First Annual Decline in Three Years
In March, the median asking price for rent dropped 0.4% year over year to $1,937. This was the first time in three years since March 2020 that rent prices have dropped annually, and is the lowest asking price in 13 months. In comparrison, rents were up 17.5% in March of 2022.
According to Redfin, “rents are falling, but it feels more like they’re just returning to normal, which is healthy to some degree,” said Dan Close, a Redfin real estate agent in Chicago, where the median asking rent in March was 9.2% lower than it was a year earlier. “It’s similar to the cost of eggs. You can say egg prices are plummeting, but what’s really happening is they’re finally making their way back to the $3 norm instead of $5 or $6. Rents ballooned during the pandemic, and are now returning to earth.”