Rental prices increase across the U.S. as demand continues to grow

Apartment listing service RentCafe.com has updated its monthly rent report , showing that the national average rent has increased 2.9 percent in June to cross the $1,400 mark.

That unfortunate statistic, for renters at least, means they’re paying an average of $40 more per month than they did one year ago.

The report also found that this increase was rather widespread across the United States, with rents rising in 88 percent of the country’s 250 biggest cities in June. Just two percent of those cities saw rents decrease, while 10 percent remained unchanged.

The rising rents were ubiquitous across what RentCafe calls rental mega-markets in the country, with the city of Orlando, Florida, clocking in an average rent for a two-bedroom apartment of $1,387 in June, which represents 8.4 percent growth from the same month one year ago. That was the fastest growth of any city, RentCafe said.

Other key markets also saw rapid growth. Las Vegas for example saw rents up by 7 percent, while Phoenix saw its prices rise by 6.4 percent, and San Diego, 5.4 percent. The picture was a bit better on the east coast with slower rental price growth of just 1.5 percent in Manhattan and 0.6 percent growth in Baltimore.

Heading southwards, mid-size cities such as Tampa Bay also saw big rises in rental prices, with the cost of an average two-bedroom apartment growing by 6.2 percent compared to one year ago. The cities of Mesa and Sacramento also saw prices rise by a steep 5.9 percent.

The biggest rental increases however were left for some of the U.S.’s smallest cities. Midland, Texas and Odessa, Texas, saw rental prices grow by an astounding 38.8 percent and 36.6 percent respectively.

Doug Ressler, Director of Business Intelligence at Yardi Matrix, which supplied the data for this study, said there is a growing trend among homeowners to sell their houses and rent a place instead, which is taking up a significant portion of the current demand for rental properties.

“Generational and demographic changes, shifting employment opportunities, policy and economic influences are impacting the housing market and turning home buyers into renters nationally,” he said.

He also said that rapid appreciation and construction cost for homes have a significant impact too, further increasing this trend. “Student loan debt, smaller household sizes, larger down payments requirements, rising interest rates, are also contributing to this change,” he added.