Competition for rental units cooled in May, giving renters more negotiating power, according to a report from Zillow.

The online real estate search company found that the average rent in May climbed to $2,049. That was an increase of 0.4% from April and up 3.2% from a year ago. But May’s gains were below April’s month-over-month increase of 0.6%.

May’s slower rent growth was due to more rental inventory on the market and a cooling of the general housing market. Zillow reports that rents often follow home prices, and with home inventories also on the rise, housing price increases have slowed in recent months, with some regions experiencing minor price declines.

Elevated home prices and mortgage rates, which have risen about 4% since early 2021 and were at 6.84% as of June 12, have forced many potential homebuyers to rent starter homes instead of buying. Rent costs for single-family homes are cheaper than a monthly mortgage payment. However, that purchase premium (before taxes and insurance) has been cut in half during the past year, Zillow reports.

The typical single-family rental costs $2,296 per month, a 3.8% year-over-year increase. That is $92 less per month than the typical mortgage payment of $2,388 (assuming a 10% downpayment).

California has the largest difference between typical mortgage payments and average single-family rental costs. Leading the way is San Jose, where the average mortgage is $6,200 more than the average rental home, followed by San Francisco where it costs an average of $3,499 more each month to buy a home than rent. San Diego was third on the list at $1,956 and Los Angeles was fourth at $1,853.

Cities where it’s more expensive to rent include Miami, where single-family rentals cost $413 more than an average mortgage, followed by Chicago ($336), New Orleans ($273) and Pittsburgh ($194).

In May, a record number of rentals on Zillow — more than 35% — offered concessions. But that does not mean renting is inexpensive. Since the beginning of the pandemic, multifamily rents have increased by more than 29%.

Even with concessions, the median household still spent 29.9% of their income on a new rental during May. Zillow maintains that the pre-pandemic share of median household income spent on rent was 27.8%.