Is demand for single-family rental homes starting to slow? The latest research from Rentometer suggests that it might be.
Rentometer recently released its annual single-family rentals report for 2024, a report that highlights rent prices and trends for three-bedroom single-family homes in 857 cities across the United States.
According to the report, rent growth in these markets slowed in 2024. Although the average monthly rent for a three-bedroom single-family home rose to $2,357, that represented a jump of just 0.8% from the average figure in 2023.
That rent growth is significantly smaller than the year-over-year rent growth of 4% in 2023 and 7.1% in 2022.
Vacancy rates also rose in 2024, with Rentometer saying that this figure hit 6% in the third quarter of last year, the highest in 26 quarters. That helped put downward pressure on monthly rents, Rentometer said.
Not all regions of the country saw sluggish rent growth in the single-family rental market last year. Rentometer reported that monthly rents grew 5.26% on a year-over-year basis in 2024 in the single-family rental market in the Midwest last year.
That increase ranks as the biggest year-over-year rent jump of any region in the United States.
Despite this rent growth, the Midwest was home to some of the more affordable single-family rental homes last year. In Toledo, Ohio, the average monthly rent for single-family homes in 2024 stood at a low $1,217, while this figure stood at $1,308 in Detroit.
The Midwest was home to several cities that saw bigger year-over-year increases in average single-family home rentals, according to Rentometer. This includes Cleveland, where year-over-year average rents for single-family homes rose by 5.8% last year when compared to a year earlier.
In St. Louis, average single-family home monthly rents rose 5.9% on a year-over-year basis last year while this number was an even higher 7.8% in Louisville. In Lexington, single-family home monthly rents jumped by 5.8% in 2024.