Back down to earth. That’s how Apartment List described the country’s multifamily market — specifically the rents that landlords are charging — in its 2022 Rental Rewind.
It’s an apt description. Monthly apartment rent growth finally slowed in 2022. This was inevitable: Multifamily rents could not have continued to increase as they did throughout 2021. That type of growth was unsustainable.
As Apartment List reports, 2021 broke the record for the fastest rent growth in the history of the company’s national rent index. The median rent across the United States rose by 17.6% throughout the year, increasing from $1,099 in January of 2021 to $1,293 in December of that year.
Rent growth started to slow in the first half of this year, with Apartment List reporting that during the first six months of 2022 apartment rents increased by 5.5% nationally. That wasn’t as strong as what the sector saw in 2021, but still represented solid growth.
But during the second half of this year, rent growth has slowed even more. Apartment List says that apartment rents have now been falling since August.
As of November, Apartment List’s national rent index was showing rent growth of 4.7% for 2022, with the national median apartment rent now standing at $1,356. Apartment List predicts that year-end rent growth for all of 2022 will likely come in below 4%.
