Only a Handful of Markets Logged Rent Cuts in February

While most of the nation’s largest 150 apartment markets had returned to monthly rent growth in February, there were a few stragglers. The U.S. overall saw effective asking rents grow by 0.6% in February, the nation’s best monthly performance since June 2019. However, that recent increase wasn’t enough to undue previous declines, leaving annual cuts at 0.9%. The nation’s recent rent growth progress was seen across most of the big 150 apartment markets, with only six still logging price declines on a monthly basis. Midland/Odessa saw the nation’s steepest rent cuts, with a decline of 1.1% in February. This market started seeing pricing performance decline in 2018, well before the COVID-19 pandemic downturn. In fact, Midland/Odessa has seen no sign of positive monthly rent growth since May of 2019. Monthly rent cuts of 0.8% were seen in Johnson City, though that setback didn’t do much to hinder annual growth of 7%. Meanwhile, pricing eased by a mild 0.1% in Wichita, Trenton, Lubbock, and New Haven in February. Out of those, only Lubbock is still seeing annual cuts at 0.2%.