Click here to see the 20 Cities with the Greatest Rise in Rent Values report for 2022.
Unlike most other U.S. cities, these twenty hubs are seeing the greatest surges in rent values in 2021.
Housing markets across the United States had an unexpected boom in 2020 that’s continued into 2021, despite the impact of the pandemic on the United States economy over the past year. Migration out of large metropolitan areas into smaller, suburban cities, paired with historically low mortgage interest rates, has resulted in an unprecedented demand for housing nationwide. Across the country, real estate markets for homebuyers are hot. And in certain cities, rental markets are also following suit.
Unlike most U.S. housing markets in 2020, the majority of rental markets across the nation did not see landmark surges in value or demand. Soon after COVID-19 swept the nation in the spring of 2020, a federal eviction moratorium was established to keep financially vulnerable tenants housed during stay-at-home orders. This order, in effect from September 4th, 2020 until March 31, 2021 (following the CARES Act eviction moratorium, in effect between March 27, 2020, and July 24, 2020), prevents landlords from raising rents for existing tenants and evicting tenants who are unable to make rent. In fact, many major metropolitan areas such as New York City, Seattle, and San Francisco with high rent prices prior to the pandemic saw significant declines in rent values over the course of 2020.
Many former big-city dwellers with the necessary financial means and flexible work-from-home lifestyles have been leaving major metropolises for more picturesque and spacious settings. In some of these more scenic cities, rent values for units available on the market have increased. While rising rent values are evidence of a flourishing real estate market, it’s important to note that this also means that apartments in these cities are less accessible to lower-income renters who may become priced out of these locales. To see where renters are driving up demand the most, the data scientists at Insurify looked to national rent data to identify the cities with the greatest increase in rent values in 2021.
