The average U.S. multifamily advertised rent ticked up $2 in August, to $1,773, while year-over-year price growth accelerated to 0.4%, according to a report from Yardi Matrix.

The modest increase marked one of the few times that rents have risen in recent months, due to the large number of deliveries of multifamily properties since the COVID-19 pandemic. Yardi Matrix found that apartment starts and deliveries have fallen by one-third from the peak development period of 2023-24.

Despite the slowdown in new deliveries, the country is still working through the glut of apartments that hit the market in recent years, with the advertised rent growth remaining negative in the Sun Belt and very low nationally. At the same time, absorption has remained consistent, creating the expectation that rent growth should pick up in the coming months.

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Currently, 1.2 million apartment units across the country are in the lease-up phase, the initial period when a new, renovated or repositioned apartment is rented. The August figure is down from the peak of 1.4 million units in lease-up in early 2025, but it is still about double the market average during the previous decade.

Of the largest 30 metropolitan areas analyzed by Yardi Matrix, eight had at least 30,000 units in lease-up, dominated by Sun Belt cities:

• Dallas: 68,752 units
• Phoenix: 42,286 units
• Austin, Texas: 41,192 units
• New York City: 34,783 units

Houston, Atlanta and Charlotte, N.C., were among the other metros with more than 30,000 units in lease-up.

But Yardi Matrix found six metro areas with fewer than 10,000 units in lease-up, with the lowest being Detroit at 4,755 units. Baltimore had 5,997 units and Portland, Ore., had 7,391 units in lease-up.

Charlotte, N.C., had the highest percentage of lease-up units, comprising 11.6% of the available stock of apartments. It was followed by Austin, Texas, with 10.9%; Phoenix with 9.8%; and Nashville, Tenn., with 8.9%.

Single-family rent performance was mixed across the country. Miami boasted the highest year-over-year rent growth at 5.4%. It was followed by Grand Rapids, Mich.; the Cleveland-Akron area in Ohio; and Kansas City, all with 3.3% rent growth.

The Southwest experienced the strongest year-over-year price pressure, with San Antonio rents cratering 5.5%, Phoenix rents decreasing 2.3% and Houston rents falling 1.9%.