Midwest Region Still Seeing Rent Growth in May

The Midwest was the only region to avoid rent cuts in May. In the nation overall, the economic fallout continued due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and the U.S. apartment market turned to rent cuts for the first time since April 2010, slicing rents by 0.5% in the year-ending May. Only the Midwest is still seeing rent growth, with prices up by 0.8% year-over-year. This reading was boosted by performances in Cincinnati, which posted growth of 2.8%, and Indianapolis and St. Louis, which saw increases close to 2%. Meanwhile, rent change in the Northeast fell stagnant, and prices were cut by 0.5% and 1.2% in the South and West, respectively. This was quite a difference from the performances from three months ago, when the West region was the nation’s leader, with annual rent growth at 3.3%, followed by increases of 3% in the Northeast, 2.7% in the Midwest and 2.6% in the South.