In October, rental prices rose nationwide 10.9% year-over-year, CoreLogic’s latest released Single-Family Rental Index shows. Vacancy rates remain at 25-year lows.

“Single-family rent growth hit its sixth consecutive record high in October 2021, mirroring record price increases in for-sale housing inventory,” says Molly Boesel, principal economist at CoreLogic. “Rent growth in October 2020 had already recovered from pre-pandemic lows and rent growth this October was more than three times that of a year earlier.”

Tight inventory in the for-sale real estate market has displaced some potential buyers, Boesel notes. That has sparked a tidal wave of demand in single-family rentals.

The largest jump in single-family rental growth has occurred in high-priced tiers—those that are priced at 125% or more of the region’s median. That tier has seen growth at 11.4% over the past year, followed by the higher-middle priced tier—100% to 125% of the regional median–which has posted growth of 11.3%.

The metro areas posting the largest year-over-year increase in single-family rents in October were:

  • Miami: 29.7%
  • Phoenix: 19.3%
  • Las Vegas: 16.5%

These three metros have seen rapid growth as tourism returns and its local labor markets improve, CoreLogic researchers note.

A single-family rent index showing the year-over-year rent percent change in 20 markets

(Magazine.Realtor)