A construction boom over the past several years has increased the number of apartments for rent across the United States, driving prices lower for some lucky tenants.
The nationwide median asking rent in February 2026 was $1,357, 1.5% lower than the same time last year. Among 216 metro areas, 57% had lower rents in February than last year, according to data from Apartment List.
Realtor.com’s February Rental Report, released March 17, found the same trend, although with slightly different details. “National median rents have hit a 30-month streak of declines, falling to their lowest point since March 2022,” Realtor’s economists wrote in a report.
It’s important to note that compared to February 2019, before the pandemic distorted housing markets across the country, national rents are more than 20% higher. And while Apartment List data shows that 153 million people live in a metro where the rent decreased for the year in February, roughly 100 million lived in areas where it went up.
Even as the national averages show prices stabilizing, some metro areas are seeing big swings. In some parts of the Sun Belt, a burst of development has pushed prices lower. Apartment List’s data shows two Florida hotspots as charting the biggest decline since a year ago, with Austin in third place.
Realtor’s report, meanwhile, shows Austin in first place for the biggest decline since the summer 2022 peak.
Austin is one beneficiary of a boom in development over the past few years. In 2024, 608,000 multifamily units were constructed, the highest annual volume since 1986, researchers at Harvard University’s Joint Center for Housing Studies explained in their report, America’s Rental Housing 2026.
But the declines in rent mask a bigger problem with affordability. Half of all renters – 22.7 million households – are “cost-burdened,” the Harvard researchers wrote, meaning that they spend more than 30% of their income on rent and utilities.
There are 12.1 million Americans spending more than half of their income on rent and utilities, which is known as being “severely cost-burdened.”
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Rents decreased in most places. Here’s where it was steepest.
Reporting by Andrea Riquier and Ignacio Calderon, USA TODAY
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
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