Single-Family Rent Growth Hits Record High in July

CoreLogic has released its latest Single-Family Rent Index (SFRI) for July 2021, which analyzes single-family rent price changes nationally and across major metropolitan areas, showing a national rent increase of 8.5% year-over-year, up from a 1.7% year-over-year increase in July 2020.

July marked another month of rapid growth for the SFR market, with rent gains exceeding pre-pandemic rates across all price tiers for the fourth consecutive month. Strong economic and employment growth buoyed rent growth to a 16.5-year high, with the largest increases seen in single-family detached properties.

“Single-family rent prices continue to climb as national economic recovery, the overcrowded purchase market and deficient inventory puts pressure on the rental market,” said Molly Boesel, Principal Economist at CoreLogic. “With eviction moratoriums coming to a close this fall, and single-family rental inflation showing no signs of slowing over the next several months, affordability challenges may begin to pose a more urgent concern for renters.”

CoreLogic examined four tiers of rental prices, with national SFR growth across the four tiers, and the year-over-year changes, were as follows:

• Lower-priced (75% or less than the regional median): 5.9%, up from 2.4% in July 2020
• Lower-middle priced (75% to 100% of the regional median): 7.2%, up from 1.6% in July 2020
• Higher-middle priced (100% to 125% of the regional median): 8%, up from 1.7% in July 2020
• Higher-priced (125% or more than the regional median): 9.8%, up from 1.7% in July 2020

Among the 20 metro areas shown in Table 1 (below), Phoenix had the highest year-over-year increase in single-family rents in July 2021 at 18.9%. As more of the population was vaccinated and opted for summer travel, rental markets in popular tourist destinations that were hard-hit by the pandemic also showed strong signs of recovery in July, as employment began to rise in those areas.

Miami logged the second-highest rent price growth with a gain of 17%, followed by Las Vegas’ gain of 14.3%. And while Boston has consistently experienced the largest decrease in the 20 metros’ rent prices every month for a year now (with an annual decline of 0.6% in July), the area’s rate of decline is slowing compared to previous months.