Many renters will continue to see more affordable rentals on the market through 2026, though that depends entirely on where you live—and whether a lot of construction is happening nearby.
Across the 50 largest U.S. metro areas, the median asking rent fell 1.5% in June to $1,692, marking nearly three straight years of declines, according to a report released Tuesday by Realtor.com. Rent relief has followed an increase in supply, as builders spent years playing catch-up after the pandemic rent spike, but continued relief could vary greatly depending on geography, according to Jiayi Xu, an economist at the Austin-based real estate site.
“Cities like Columbus, Ohio and Orlando are ramping up construction and are set up for more relief, while places like New York and Boston pulled back, which may raise concerns about the affordability path ahead,” Xu said in a statement.
While permits for construction of multifamily units nationwide increased in 2025, Xu analyzed what’s become a sharp divergence between those metro areas where multifamily units permitted per 1,000 residents is at the lowest (or highest) level since 2019. That explains why rent relief won’t be felt evenly ahead, according to the report from Realtor.com.
WHERE RENT RELIEF COULD CONTINUE
The five cities and their surrounding metro areas that are “best positioned” to see continued rental relief have strong pipelines for multifamily construction. They are:
- Columbus, Ohio
- Las Vegas, Nevada
- Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
- Birmingham, Alabama
- Providence, Rhode Island
- Cleveland, Ohio
There’s no one common theme among these cities, as Xu noted in the report. Columbus is benefitting from zoning reform, while the market in Las Vegas may be normalizing, and the other three metro areas have historically built very few multifamily units, which is a sign that more construction in “long-stagnant markets” could provide more affordable options for renters.
Although no cities in Florida made the cut for the top five metro areas, Orlando, Miami and Jacksonville actually outpaced Columbus for year-over-year permitting gains.
WHERE RENTERS COULD BE SQUEEZED
By contrast, renters in cities where construction of multifamily units has stalled may not benefit from the broader relief that comes from more housing supply. These cities are:
- Austin, Texas
- Charlotte, North Carolina
- Seattle, Washington
- New York, New York
- Washington, D.C.
- Boston, Massachusetts
Last month, New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani delivered on one of his signature campaign promises as the city’s Rent Guidelines Board voted to freeze the rent for rent-stabilized apartments beginning in October. Even before his election, some real estate experts cautioned that such measures might not provide broad relief to renters.
Xu says that the pace of permitting for multifamily construction is key to addressing the problem of affordability ahead.
“Rent control and rent freezes can protect the renters already in a unit, but they don’t do anything to bring the market rate down for everyone else,” Xu said. “Sustainably lower rent comes from more supply, and right now that effort looks very different from city to city.”
No comments