The 10 Cities Where Rent Is Actually Getting More Affordable

While there are some promising new signs that inflation may ease soon, the price of housing is only continuing to climb. While nationwide rent costs were previously on a downward trend, the average rent price in the United States has risen again, and is at the highest level it’s been since 2022, at least according to a new report from Rent.com. However, the same report shows that rents in some states are bucking the trend.

While Rent.com found that more affordable metropolitan areas like Virginia Beach, Virginia, and Cincinnati, Ohio, experienced the biggest increase in median rent asking prices (up 12.9% and 12.2%, respectively), Texas’ capital reported a major decrease. Tech hotspot Austin broke records with a 12.6% decrease in rent prices, the largest drop of the 33 different metros that were included in the study.

Florida’s biggest urban hotspots also all reported declines. According to the findings, Jacksonville reported a decrease of 12.4%, while Tampa had a 6% decrease. Orlando was also down 4.8%, and Miami was down 3.8%. 

Surprisingly, some notoriously expensive California cities also saw some major decreases. According to the report, San Diego had an asking rent decrease of 11.4%, San Francisco had a 6.1% decrease, and Los Angeles had a 3.9% decrease.

Rent.com, which published its findings in conjunction with parent company Redfin, used median asking rent data for newly listed units in buildings with five or more units during a three-month period ending June 30, 2024. 

Rent.com and Redfin used nationwide data to find the average amount asking rent prices increased in the U.S., but homed in on 33 out of the 50 most populated metropolitan areas in the country for its metro-level findings. The report was compiled with data from June 2024 and found that rent prices nationwide rose 0.7% year over year to $1,654. This marks the third month in a row of increases after 11 months of decreasing rental prices, which the report attributed to tough homebuying conditions that are keeping people in the rental market.

The report pointed to the pandemic when analyzing why Austin and metropolitan areas in Florida and California experienced such big drops in rental prices. They argued that the pandemic-era demand for some of these cities might have led to overly high rent price increases (which are now normalizing) as well as construction on extra buildings after 2020, which brought up housing stock and lowered housing costs.

Researchers also said it was possible that some residents were priced out of these metropolitan areas in the more expensive years after the pandemic, lowering demand for rentals and thus rent prices.

Here are the top 10 cities with the biggest drops in rental prices.

1. Austin, Texas
2. Jacksonville, Florida
3. San Diego, California
4. San Francisco, California
5. Tampa, Florida
6. Orlando, Florida
7. Seattle, Washington
8. Nashville, Tennessee
9. Phoenix, Arizona
10.  Los Angeles, California

You can read the full report here.