You can’t kick a good apartment while it’s down.
After a downturn in sales largely blamed on COVID-19’s impact on average affordability, Candea Development reports that rental prices have quickly rebounded — highly.
Both rental and home prices are skyrocketing throughout the country, as COVID restrictions ease, working from home largely becomes the norm, and families and individuals find that they can no longer break into a hot housing market through buying a place.
Instead, they’re turning to the even hotter rental market. In fact, in many places rent is rising even more quickly than home prices. In December, the median rent nationally for a one-bedroom was $1.651, a 19% rise over 2020.
Also contributing to the rise in rent is the continuing shortage of properties to buy. Realtor.com predicts a 7.1% rise in rent growth in the United States in 2022, with ongoing inflation keeping housing prices across the board extremely high.
If you live in the following markets, 2022 may be a tough time to find housing, especially if you’re looking to rent and not buy.
Florida
About 673,000 apartment units were rented in 2021, up 66% from the previous high in 2000. Many of those apartments were rented in Florida and other areas in the Southeast.
Rents in Florida markets including Orlando, Miami, West Palm Beach, Jacksonville, and Fort Lauderdale, were among cities seeing at least a 20% rise in rental costs from November 2020 to November 2021.
In Tampa, there is an estimated 6.9% rent growth anticipated for 2022, the fourth highest in the nation. In Miami, the median rent of $2,850 in December 2021 is a nearly 50% rise compared to 2020.
Arizona and Nevada
Which cities are expected to experience the highest rent growth in 2022? Phoenix, Arizona, tops estimates by Freddie Mac, Reis, and RealPage, with rent growth of 7.6%, followed by Las Vegas, Nevada, at 7%.
Tucson, Arizona, is also high on the list, as is Grand Canyon States cities such as Chandler and Mesa. Henderson, Nevada, just outside of Las Vegas, also ranks in the top 5 of rent cost rises between 2020 and 2021.
But Phoenix is particularly robust, A Realtor.com rental report released in November found that Phoenix ranked in national rent increases year-to-year, with a whopping rise of 26.4%.
Major Tech Hubs
America’s largest tech-hub cities, such as Austin and New York City, experienced some of the steepest declines or stalls in rents during the height of the pandemic.
Now rent amounts and rent growth are surging again. Average rent grew nearly 10% in the United States’ 10 biggest tech cities, with Austin (22.3% rise) and Denver (15.5% rise) topping the list.
Cities that are new big tech hubs, like Fresno, California, are also experiencing rental booms. The cost of a one-bedroom in Fresno rose 17.5% in 2021.
No matter the market, though, there’s another reason why rents are soaring. For many Americans, going the rental route is so popular because in 2021 it took a full year longer for a first-time homebuyer to save for a typical down payment of 20%. And that’s compared to just five years ago.
