Rents Are Still Rising—but Not By Much. Are the Steep Hikes Finally Over?

Rental prices in the largest metropolitan areas across the country rose 11.6% for the full year in 2022 but downshifted steadily throughout the year. By December, prices were only 3.2% higher, compared with the same month a year earlier.

Nationally, the median monthly rent was $1,712 in December—down $69 from the peak in July.

However, the national numbers mask enormous differences in metros around the country, where the locations people are moving to and from are reversing. And instead of embarking on costly, cross-country moves or striking out on their own, many renters are staying put.

“Inflation is high, living costs are high,” says Realtor.com economist Jiayi Xu. “Instead of people looking for a new place, they may be staying where they are or maybe moving in with their families. The formation of [new] renter households is decreasing.”

Notably, some of the hottest metro areas during the pandemic are now experiencing annual price drops. Take Tampa, FL, for example. Rents were down 4.3% year over year in December in the Florida metro. Prices also slipped 4.5% in the Las Vegas metro area.

Slower price gains and even declines are a welcome change, Xu notes. But she points out that prices in many pandemic hot spots are still elevated, raising affordability concerns. The median monthly rental price in Tampa—for homes of all sizes—was $1,760 in December, for example. In Miami, it was $2,682.

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Even as the Sun Belt cools, some of the big cities that people fled in the early days of 2020 are heating back up. In December, rental prices were up 12.2% in the New York City metro and a whopping 17.5% in metro Chicago.

The biggest rent growth in 2022 was seen among studio apartments, the report found—a reversal of the 2021 trend in which larger units commanded the biggest increases, as folks were stuck inside and clamoring for more space. Studios are much more common in bigger cities like New York City, Chicago, and Boston, where people are now flocking.