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After strengthening in the first half of this year, single-family home rents began to slow in July. This could be a sign that as the consumer struggles, landlords are going to have to move to meet them.
Single-family rent prices in July increased 2.3% from the same month last year, which is slower than the 3.1% average rise a year ago, according to the latest data from Cotality. Rent growth has now fallen below the lower end of the 10-year average range of pre-pandemic growth.
“After a strong start to the year, single-family rent growth is clearly losing steam,” said Molly Boesel, senior principal economist at Cotality. “In July, we broadly saw weakening in annual single-family rent growth across metro areas and price tiers.”
Rent growth was just 0.2% higher in July compared with June, which is far below the historical July average monthly growth of 0.7%. That is a notable shift from monthly gains that had been stronger than usual earlier this year.
