US Single-Family Rent Index—February 2025

The monthly growth rate for December 2024 remains low at -0.7%. This is below the average of -0.4% for December from 2004-2019, and it marks the fifth consecutive month of below-trend seasonal month-over-month growth. 

Single-family rent prices increased 1.8 percent year over year in December 2024, down from the previous month’s 2.2 percent, and down from December 2023, when rent prices grew 2.5 percent, marking the lowest annual growth rate in about four years. 

Single-family rent growth averaged 2.6 percent in 2024, below the 2010-2020 average of 3.5 percent when rents were growing at a fairly steady rate. Growth was frontloaded and slowed throughout the year. Though increases were moderate, rents continue to increase, with an average increase of about $100 per year for the past five years.

Rent prices for high-end properties increased 2.4 percent year over year in December, a gain from the 2.2 percent growth seen at the same time last year. In contrast, low-end rent prices increased 1.7 percent year over year in December, a slowdown from the 2.8 percent seen in December 2023. 

Rent growth across property types remained fairly consistent in December 2024, with detached rentals experiencing a growth of 1.7 percent and attached rentals growing 1.8 percent. 

Washington, D.C., posted the highest year-over-year increase in single-family rents in December 2024 at 5.6 percent. Detroit fell to the No. 2 slot in December with an annual gain of 5.5 percent, followed by Chicago at 5.1 percent. Dallas had the lowest growth at just 0.4 percent in December, followed by Atlanta at 0.7 percent. While Miami had the third-lowest year-over-year rate of growth in December at 1.3 percent, that market has seen tremendous growth in the last four-plus years, growing 52 percent since February 2020. 

—Posted on February 28, 2025