For the first time in about a year, the list of markets experiencing the highest rent growth across the U.S. shuffled quite a bit in January. A handful of markets, including Nashville, San Diego and Seattle have all been on the upswing in gaining rent growth momentum over the last few months. Nashville overtook Las Vegas in January to claim the #2 spot for annual rent growth nationally. At 5.0% in January, Nashville’s annual rent growth sits about 160 basis points (bps) above its five-year average. Another rising market, San Diego, saw annual rent growth run to 4.1% in January, the highest level the market has seen in over a year. Meanwhile, Seattle rent growth surged 80 bps from December to January to hit the highest rate the Pacific Northwest market has seen since July 2017. Besides Memphis, which surged 100 bps in January, Seattle saw the largest single-month rent growth increase in the nation in January.
