United States

Market update May 2024: Rents cooling, still in hot demand

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Until the Federal Reserve cuts interest rates and housing supply catches up with demand, home sale and rent prices will likely remain high for the foreseeable future.

  • The national median list price continued to increase seasonally from $424,900 in March to $430,000 in April, according to Realtor.com.
  • The site also reports a 9% month-over-month increase in newly listed homes, from 395,536 in March to 432,028 in April, as well as a 12.2% increase year over year.
  • Zumper continues to report stable annual rental rates, with one-bedroom rents down 0.6% to $1,486 and two-bedrooms up just 0.1% to $1,843. Despite this cooling, the national one-bedroom rent remains nearly $250 higher than it was in 2021.
  • As Zumper CEO Anthemos Georgiades explains, “With Class A buildings marketing concessions that include up to three months of free rent, free parking, and waived deposits and application fees, this, in turn, puts pressure on Class B and C buildings to price competitively as well in order to attract tenants.”
  • 59 of Zumper’s top 100 cities saw an increase in rental prices from the previous month, while 28 fell and 13 reported no change.
  • Even as inventory increases nationwide, it is still trailing behind demand, suggesting that any changes to average rents for the rest of the year will remain fairly modest.
  • Record-high mortgage rates promptly reversed the uptrend in builder confidence recorded in the past couple of months, resulting in a six-point drop to 45 in May, reports The National Association of Home Builders.
  • “We are also concerned about the recent code rules that require HUD and USDA to insure mortgages for new single-family homes only if they are built to the 2021 International Energy Conservation Code,” said NAHB Chairman Carl Harris.
  • The NAHB believes the new rule will curb home construction and “add up to $31,000 to the price of a new home,” while environmental experts predict households in northern and mountainous states will “save over $18,000 on their housing and energy bills over a 30-year mortgage.”

More rental market headlines

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