Residential apartments in New York, USA.
Adam Gray | Bloomberg | Getty Images
According to Apartment List, the national median apartment rent in August increased by 0.1% from July, marking the seventh consecutive month of increases. It may seem like a small number, but this is the first positive growth in rents in the same month since August 2022.
Rents are still 0.8% lower than last August, but the decline has slowed, a sign that the rental market is finally starting to stabilize after years of falling rents.
According to the report, rents recorded their steepest decline in April this year as economic uncertainty and job market concerns dampened demand. The national median monthly rent is now $1,390, down $11 from August 2025.
The apartment market’s peak moving season is spring and summer, but an oversupply of new units has changed the seasonal dynamics of rents and vacancies.
“August rents were slightly lower as the rental market entered the year amid softer off-season conditions than in recent years,” Chris Salviati, Apartment List’s chief economist, said in a note. “Blocking that trend, this month’s data shows new signs that the rental market is turning a corner.”
Apartment List’s vacancy index has also declined for six consecutive months, dropping to 7.1% in August. Although vacancy rates are still near their recent peak in February, the decline since then marks the first decline since 2021.
Construction of multifamily housing has accelerated in recent years, reaching a peak in 2024 when more than 600,000 new units will hit the market. This is the most new supply since 1986, according to Apartment List.
“Despite the tail end of the construction boom, the market was still struggling to absorb the bulge in new inventory. Alongside rising rents, multifamily occupancy has also reached an inflection point, and that is only now beginning to change,” Salviati wrote.
Although the national picture shows recovery, regional trends vary widely. Year-over-year rent declines were concentrated in the South and Mountain West regions. Rent prices are noticeably higher in the Northeast, Midwest, and parts of the West Coast.
The highest rent growth was in San Francisco and San Jose, California, Virginia Beach, Virginia, and Milwaukee. The biggest rent declines were in San Antonio, Las Vegas, and Denver.
