Apartment rents in Richmond, VA are rising at a stronger pace than this market has seen in at least two decades. The capital of Virginia logged annual effective asking rent growth of 6.8% in March, which was the strongest momentum Richmond has seen since RealPage began tracking the market in early 2000. In fact, the only other time in the past 20 years annual rent growth here reached beyond 5% was back in late 2017. While rent growth in Richmond faded during the hardest months of the COVID-19 pandemic, getting as low as 0.1% briefly in May 2020, operators here never did turn to rent cuts. Additionally, the rebound since that low point has been swift and strong. In contrast, the U.S. overall saw annual rent cuts start in May and have continued since. Average annual rent cuts in the nation were at 0.7% in March. Looking specifically at other nearby markets, Virginia Beach also logged healthy rent growth of 5.7% in the year-ending March, while the much bigger, much more expensive Washington, DC apartment market logged some of the worst annual price cuts in the nation at 6.1%.
