MidwestMultifamily Multifamily still strong: Monthly apartment rents hit a new high in July Dan Rafter August 23, 2018 Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Share on LinkedIn Share via email Commercial real estate professionals are wondering when the multifamily market will slow. But the latest research from RENTCafe shows that as of the middle of summer demand for apartment units remained strong. Monthly rents, in fact, reached a new high, according to the research. RENTCafe reported that that the national average rent reached an all-time high of $1,409 in July. That’s up 2.8 percent from the same month a year earlier. In the Midwest, Peoria, Illinois, saw its average monthly apartment rent jump 10.3 percent in July compared to a year earlier. Peoria is the only small Midwest city that saw a rent increase in the double digits. According to RENTCafe, rents increased in 88 perent of the country’s 252 biggest cities in July and stayed flat in 11 percent. Only two big cities – Brownsville, Texas, and Norman, Oklahoma – saw rents drop when compared to July of 2017. The average monthly rent for studio apartments stood at $1,242 in July, while it hit $1,274 for one-bedroom units. Two-bedroom apartments had an average monthly rent of $1,493, while three-bedroom rents hit an average of $1,719 in July. In Chicago, the average monthly apartment rent was $1,889, the highest of any city in the Midwest. In Columbus, Ohio, the average monthly rent was $904, while in Indianapolis that figure was $838. Renters in Wichita, Kansas, were fortunate: Apartments rented an average of just $640 a month in July here. Wichita had the lowest average monthly rent of all the cities tracked by RENTCafe. Toledo, Ohio, with an average of $704, had the fourth-lowest monthly rent.