Overview

In this month’s report, we explained a few key market trends:

🔑 Rent prices have bottomed out for the season. Expect increases next month.

🔑 Oversupply in Huntsville, AL has led to a sharp rent decrease

🔑 Trends are moving in opposite directions in neighboring states Montana and Idaho.

National Trends

While rent trends differ from region to region, here’s what you need to know about rent prices on a national level:

The median rent has likely hit its low point for the year.

🔑 The national median rent price for a one-bedroom apartment (now $1,450) remained flat from December to January.

🔑 Typically, prices decrease toward the end of the year and slowly begin trending upwards again in February. We can expect to see this trend again starting next month.

Regional Trends

In this month’s report, we dove deep into the following trend:

Oversupply of rental housing in Northern Alabama has led to lower prices.

🔑 In the last two years, Huntsville, AL has added thousands of new rental units to its housing stock — turning a market with a severe housing shortage into one facing oversupply.

🔑 According to recent reports, vacancy rates in Hunstville are in the double digits. The impacts of oversupply are also reflected in our rent price data. 

🔑 Based on our January data, the median asking price is down 1.7% MoM and 6.4% YoY.

🔑 Developers are expecting demand (and, in turn, rent growth) to rebound in the next few years. The city is already a hub for the aerospace and defense industries — and the planned relocation of the U.S. Space Command Center is expected to further drive new residents to the area.

Rent at the State Level

🔑 Both Montana and Idaho saw inflated rent prices during the pandemic thanks to a boom in remote work and a desire among renters to have more access to the outdoors.

🔑 While rent in the former is continuing to rise, Idaho is finally seeing a course correction after several years of artificially high prices. It had the largest MoM median price dip in January (-8.3%) and the second largest YoY (-6.3%) for one-bedroom apartments.

🔑 Meanwhile, in supply-strapped Montana, prices are way up (+4% MoM, +12.6% YoY).

🔑 While these rent surges are at the state level, a closer look at Bozeman reveals that the college town (often rated the No. 1 college town in America) has a large impact on the numbers. 

To learn more about rent trends in your city and to see our methodology, read our full monthly rent report here.