There was a 3.7% decline in rents compared to the same time last year, in the cities of Atlanta, Sandy Springs and Roswell, and the area ranked fourth in 10 markets with the largest yearly rent price declines, according to a March rental report by real estate listings company Realtor.com. The median rent in March was $1,626.
“Rising shelter costs have been a major driver of overall inflation, a top concern for the [Federal Reserve] as it meets this week,” Danielle Hale, the listings site’s chief economist, said in a news release. “There is some good news for renters with prices falling in many parts of the country, especially outside expensive metro markets in the West and Northeast.”
The March rental report comes with provisos, noting that while rents in the United States declined for the eighth month in a row, the median rent nationwide of $1,722 was only $36 less than an August 2022 peak. That’s still $313 more than pre-pandemic prices in March 2019.
Moreover, wages have not kept pace with rising housing costs. And a Zillow report released earlier this month found that rents are still rising in metro Atlanta, though at a slower pace.
According to the Realtor.com report, rents in other parts of the country, including the Midwest, were flat. In the South, the median rent fell 1.5% compared to the same time last year, the report found. Hale said this was evidence that increasing the supply of available housing had curbed costs in the region.
“Unemployment is low and demand for rental housing was strong, but an influx of new units has helped push down rental prices,” said the report, which relied on rental data in March for studio, one-bedroom and two-bedroom units listed on Realtor.
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