National rents rise for third straight month ahead of summer moving season

The national median rent ticked up by 0.5% in April, increasing for the third consecutive month following six straight monthly rent declines. It's the time of year when the bulk of moves take place, and as such, continued price increases are likely to occur through the summer, in line with typical seasonal patterns. Prices generally soften as fewer renters move during the fall and winter, and then gradually begin to increase as the peak summer moving season approaches.

The broad contours of this seasonal pattern are consistent, but in recent years, there have been sharper winter dips and more modest summer bumps as the market has gone through a soft spell amid a wave of new multifamily construction. In addition to steeper winter declines since 2022, there has been a slight shift in the timing of rental market seasonality. Whereas May used to be the annual peak for rent growth, over the past three years, March has been the hottest month, with rent growth slowing down during what were, prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, the months when prices would increase most quickly. This year again, rent growth stalled out in April, with month-over-month growth coming in just a hair below the March reading.

In this article, Apartment List analyzes national rent trends, vacancy rates, and leasing activity heading into the 2026 summer moving season.

• The national median rent increased by 0.5% in April and now stands at $1,370. This marks the third straight monthly increase, as the market gears up for the busy summer moving season.
• Rent prices nationally are down 1.7% compared to one year ago. Year-over-year rent growth is now at the lowest level in Apartment List estimates dating back to 2017, surpassing a record set in the early months of the pandemic. The national median rent has now fallen from its 2022 peak by a total of 5%.
• The national multifamily vacancy rate ticked down to 7.2% in April. After hitting a new record in Q1, the vacancy rate may have now hit its peak and turned the corner. This marks the first time the vacancy rate has decreased in over four years.
• Units are taking an average of 35 days to get leased after being listed, which is five days longer than one year ago, and nearly twice as long as it took units to turn over when the market was at its hottest in mid-2021.
• The Austin, Texas, metro continues to have the softest conditions among the nation's large rental markets, with the median rent there down by 5.7% over the past year. At the other end of the spectrum, the Virginia Beach, Virginia, metro now sits atop the rankings of fastest year-over-year rent growth at +5.2%.

Compared to one year ago, the national median rent is down by 1.7%. At this time last year, it had appeared that year-over-year rent growth was on track to flip positive for the first time since mid-2023; however, that rebound stalled out and reversed course as demand had slowed amid a more uncertain labor market. Year-over-year rent growth has been gradually dipping further negative for a full year now, and the current reading of -1.7% is the lowest year-over-year rent growth recorded in the history of the estimates going back to 2017.

Apartment List's national vacancy index - which measures the average vacancy rate of stabilized properties in the marketplace - recently hit a peak of 7.3%, marking the highest level since at least 2017, which is when the company started tracking occupancy. In April, however, the vacancy rate ticked back down to 7.2%, the first time that there has been a decline in the national vacancy index since late 2021. In the four-plus years since, the vacancy rate has consistently loosened, gradually moving from record lows to record highs. The market may finally be beginning to stabilize.

That said, April's decline was modest, and the vacancy rate remains elevated above its long-run average. And with mixednews on the labor market, combined with renewed inflation concerns, there is reason to think that demand could be sluggish heading into the peak moving season. It's possible that the vacancy rate will simply plateau at this elevated rate, rather than continuing to decline in a meaningful way.

List-to-lease time remains elevated at 35 days

As more vacant units have come onto the market, those units have also been sitting vacant for longer. The "time on market" index shows how long it takes for units to get leased after they are first listed on the platform. This "list-to-lease" time is a highly seasonal measure, and it ticked down slightly in April, in line with the same seasonal pattern observed in the rent index. Units leased in April had been sitting on the market for an average of 35 days, down from 38 days in March.

Rent declines are mostly concentrated in Sunbelt markets

There are 55 large metropolitan areas across the country that have a population of over 1 million. In April, rents increased month over month in 51 of these markets, but rents remained down year over year in 33 of them. Rent trends vary significantly by region, with annual declines currently concentrated primarily in the South and Mountain West regions. Meanwhile, many markets in the Northeast, Midwest, and parts of the West Coast continue to see prices trend up despite the winter slowdown.

Austin has seen the nation's sharpest decline among large metros - the metro-wide median rent there has fallen 5.7% in the last 12 months and is down more than 20% from its 2022 peak. The Austin metro is also significant for permitting new homes at the fastest pace of any large metro in the country, indicating the impact of new supply on softening rents. Austin is not alone in exhibiting this trend; among the 10 metros with the sharpest year-over-year rent declines, many also rank among the highest in terms of multifamily permits (e.g., San Antonio, Denver, Phoenix, Tampa, and Orlando). Notably, almost all of these markets are located in the Sunbelt.

At the other end of the spectrum, the Virginia Beach metro currently sits in the top spot for fastest rent growth, with prices there up 5.2% over the past year. Two Bay Area metros - San Francisco and San Jose round out the top three, as the AI boom has created a wave of high-paying tech jobs there. A number of Midwest markets (e.g., Chicago, St. Louis, and Minneapolis) have also been maintaining steady positive rent growth amid soft national conditions, with the region's relative affordability propping up demand.

Conclusion

The rental market is beginning to enter its busy season, but multifamily conditions remain soft. Month-over-month rent growth stalled out in April, and year-over-year growth is at a new low. The national vacancy rate, however, ticked down for the first time in four years, perhaps an early sign of conditions beginning to shift as the market finally metabolizes the recent growth in the rental stock. But even as the construction wave recedes, an uncertain macroeconomic outlook presents risks to rental demand.

Complete Data and Methodology

All of the underlying data presented in this report is freely available on Apartment List's rental data download page, where you can find the full monthly history of the rent estimates, vacancy index, and time on market index at various geographic levels (national, state, metro, county, and city).

This story was produced by Apartment List and reviewed and distributed by Stacker.

Copyright 2026 Stacker Media, LLC

This story was originally published May 19, 2026 at 8:00 AM.