In the United States, apartment rents continued to decline at the beginning of the new year in 2026, as more new housing units continue to enter the market and landlords are competing to rent out their properties.
According to data from the online rental platform “Apartment List,” the national median rent for January was $1,353, down 1.4% from a year ago. This marks the fourth consecutive winter of “significant” seasonal declines in apartment rents, and the largest annual decline since September 2023, reaching the lowest January rent level since 2022. The current rent level is 6.2% lower than the previous peak in the summer of 2022.
The national vacancy rate for apartments in January was 7.3%, the highest level recorded since the establishment of the “Apartment List” index in 2017. It now takes an average of 41 days to rent out an apartment, 4 days longer than in January 2025, setting another high point for the index.
Chris Salviati, chief economist at “Apartment List,” wrote in a report, “Last year, early signs pointed to a return to positive annual rent growth for the first time since mid-2023; however, this rebound stalled and reversed course during a sluggish summer moving season, and now the situation has dragged into winter.”
While a record number of new apartment units have reached their peak, there is still a significant number of units being released. However, the increase in housing supply is facing a challenging situation of weak demand due to a tightening job market and a slowdown in household formation.
Regionally, most of the annual rent decreases are occurring in the southern and western mountain regions; although winter is traditionally a slow season for rentals, rents in parts of the northeast, midwest, and west coast continue to rise.
(source: CNBC)