Has demand finally caught up to supply in the apartment market? Maybe not quite yet. Zumper released its latest national rent report and found that the national one-bedroom rent grew 0.8 percent in November to $1,212, while the average two-bedroom rent jumped 0.5 percent to $1,430.
Those aren’t big jumps, but they are still increases, evidence that the multifamily market is still a strong one.
And Zumper researchers are predicting a strong 2019, saying that apartment rents next year should grow at a faster pace than they did in much of 2018. Why? Zumper points to a housing market that is slowing and interest-rate hikes. If mortgage interest rates continue to increase, this should push more people toward renting instead of owning.
Then there is the lack of housing on the market. In many major cities – Chicago is one – the number of homes for sale is too small to meet demand. This, too, might force some potential homebuyers into the rental market.
Zumper’s report highlighted several notable trends in the Midwest. In Knoxville, Tennessee, the one-bedroom rent jumped 5.1 percent in November, ending the month at $580. This helped Knoxville climb two spots to become the 72nd most expensive rental market in the country.
In St. Louis, one-bedroom rents jumped 5.3 percent to $800 and two-bedroom 4.7 percent to $1,110. At the end of the month, St. Louis ranked as the 75th most expensive rental market in the United States.
Madison, Wisconsin, saw apartment rents go the other way. One-bedroom rents here took the biggest dip in the country last month, dropping 4.7 percent to an average of $1,221. Two-bedroom rents in Madison fell 0.7 percent to an average of $1,490 a month.
