Ten of the Nation's Deepest Market-Level Rent Cuts in February

Nearly one-quarter of U.S. apartment markets saw effective asking rent cuts in February 2026. Across the U.S., rents ticked up a slight 0.3% in February, marking the second straight month of gains and only the second month in the last seven that rents increased. Weighing on the national rent performance, 33 markets out of the largest 150 saw monthly pullbacks, according to data from RealPage Market Analytics. At the bottom of the list, three Florida markets – Gainesville, Cape Coral-Fort Myers and Tallahassee – ranked as the nation’s worst performers, with each seeing rents come down 1.3% in February. Eugene, OR followed with a 1% reduction for the month. Rents declined 0.9% in Akron in February, while Ann Arbor, Salem and Huntsville, AL tied with a 0.8% monthly decline. Syracuse and Nashville (the only top 50 market on the list) tied, both logging cuts of 0.7% in February. In each of these bottom-tier performance markets, rent cuts in February were vastly different from the five-year averages, which were increases of 0.1% to 0.4%. Occupancy across this group of markets varied widely from 92.8% to 97.6%. Effective asking rents were as low as $1,333 to as high as $1,628 per month, all below the national average ($1,864).