Single-family rents marched higher in May, supported by outsized appreciation during the spring rental season, according to a new analysis published Thursday by Cotality.

Rents for single-family houses rose 1.3% year over year in May, the real estate analytics firm said, slowing to half the 2.6% growth rate recorded a year earlier. Northeast and Midwest markets helped offset ongoing softness in Florida and Texas markets, underscoring a rental market that is increasingly split by region.

Los Angeles, however, posted the largest annual deceleration of any major U.S. metro for the second consecutive month, with rent growth falling from 5.3% a year earlier to no change in May.

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Across the 50 largest U.S. metros, 13 posted annual declines, Cotality said, including seven cities in Florida. Northeast and Midwest metros such as Chicago and Philadelphia, meanwhile, continued to record single-family rent growth at least twice the national pace.

In April, only 11 cities had lower single-family rents year over year, indicating that more metros slipped into annual declines in May. Florida accounted for eight of the metros with declines in April.

“The May data tells two different stories,” commented Molly Boesel, principal economist at Cotality, in the June report. “When we look beneath the national average, the market is becoming increasingly fragmented.”

That fragmentation is not limited to geographic performance, but also rental price tiers, as more expensive units continue to outperform their lower-priced counterparts.

Rents for higher-priced properties rose 2.2% from a year earlier in May, down from 3.1% a year earlier, while rents among the lowest priced units increased by just 0.4%.

That’s a gap of nearly two percentage points that signals how demand for single-family rentals remains more resilient among more financially comfortable consumers, while also underscoring persistent affordability pressures.

Overall, however, the 2.2% growth in rents from February to May — which outpaced spring rent growth of 1.9% last year and 1.4% in 2024 — marked a “stronger-than-typical spring gain that signals improving momentum,” Boesel said.

Some markets that continue to post annual declines nevertheless recorded positive spring gains, “suggesting local conditions are beginning to shift despite still-soft year-over-year trends,” Boesel added.