Rents Edge Up 0.1% Year Over Year, First Gain Since 2023

After more than three years of flat or falling prices, the nation's rents have inched above where they were a year ago. The gain is tiny, though, and the picture changes a lot depending on where you rent.

What Apartment List found

Apartment List's report on October data puts the national median rent at $1,384 a month. That is 0.3% lower than in September, the second straight monthly drop, which the company ties to the usual autumn slowdown. Compared with October 2025, rent is up 0.1%, the first positive annual reading in more than three years. The report calls the market essentially flat.

• Median by size: $1,215 for a one-bedroom and $1,369 for a two-bedroom.
• Vacancy: 7.0%, down from a February 2026 high of 7.3%.
• Concessions: 32% of listings offer at least one month of free rent, up from 28% a year ago.
• Time to lease: an average of 36 days from listing to signed lease.

Rents fell month over month in 45 of 55 large metros but are higher than a year ago in 35 of them. Among large metros, San Francisco is up about 13% and San Jose about 9%, while San Antonio is down 3.8%. Austin is still declining, but by 1.2%, a far smaller drop than the 6.2% decline recorded in 2025. Denver, Phoenix, Tampa and Charlotte are also still lower, by narrower margins than earlier in the year.

What Zumper found

Zumper's October report, published Oct. 27, uses different listings and methods, so its numbers do not line up exactly with Apartment List's. It shows the national one-bedroom median at $1,519, up 0.1% for the month and 0.5% for the year, and the two-bedroom at $1,901, down 0.1% for the month and up 0.7% from a year earlier. Both have now been up year over year for two months running.

City-level moves are much larger:

• San Francisco: a record $4,430 for a one-bedroom, up 26.2% in a year.
• New York City: $4,610, up 4.8%.
• Chicago: $2,180, up 12.4%.
• Biggest drops: Aurora (down 9.2%), San Antonio (down 8.7%) and Durham (down 8.4%).

Zumper also noted that New York's two-year freeze on rent-stabilized renewals, which began Oct. 1 and covers about 1 million apartments, is too new to appear in rent data. We covered the rule in NYC Rent Freeze Takes Effect.

How to read a flat market

A national median that barely moves can hide a lot. Rents that rose in a few expensive coastal metros pull the average up while many Sun Belt metros, which added large amounts of new apartments in recent years, keep sliding. The concession figure is the other number worth watching: when a third of listings offer free rent, the advertised price can overstate what some tenants actually pay over the lease term.

Why the two reports differ

Apartment List measures the median rent for new leases across a broad set of metros and units; Zumper tracks asking rents on its own listings and reports by bedroom count. They agree on the direction, a market that has stopped falling, but not on every number. Neither is a guarantee of what your own landlord will charge at renewal.

What this means for renters

• Negotiate with the data. With a 7% vacancy rate and a third of listings offering concessions, renters in softer metros still have leverage on free months and renewal increases.
• Location matters more than the national number. If you rent in San Francisco, San Jose or Chicago, expect pressure; in San Antonio, Aurora or Austin, ask what discounts are available.
• Check the real cost of a deal. A free month is not the same as a lower rent. Use our rent increase and affordability calculators to compare offers.

For background on how this trend developed, see Apartment Vacancy Falls to 7% and San Francisco Rents Surge While Texas Metros Keep Falling.