Single-family rent prices nationwide continued to rise sharply in February, posting a 13.1% year-over-year gain during the month, according to CoreLogic.
February’s annualized gain set a new record as the largest in the history of CoreLogic’s Single-Family Rent Index. The increase marked an astounding 11th straight month of record-level gains as inventory shortages in both the home-purchase and rental markets have helped to lengthen the run-up in rent growth. Fewer available rental units have tilted the needle in favor of landlords while still-high home-price increases and not enough available for-sale homes have kept many prospective buyers locked into renting for the time being.
“Single-family rents rose at more than three times the rate from a year earlier and more than four times the pre-pandemic rate,” said Molly Boesel, principal economist at CoreLogic. “Strong employment and low supply have pushed single-family rental vacancy rates to low levels and have contributed to the high growth in rents.”
Sun Belt areas registered even larger rent increases that the U.S. average. These cities include Miami, which saw the largest gain among all metro areas with a 39.5% yearly increase in February. Orlando, at 22.2% year-over-year rent growth, and Phoenix (18.9%) were second and third while Washington, D.C., and St. Louis saw the smallest annualize rent gains in February at 6.5%.
