Annual Rent Cuts Continue Across 65 Large U.S. Apartment Markets

More than 40% of the top 150 U.S. apartment markets cut effective asking rents in the year-ending February 2026. Operators across the U.S. cut rents 0.1% to 11.8% in 65 apartment markets. Constrained performance went beyond just small markets to hit 27 of the top 50 markets. For perspective, the national year-over-year average cut  in the U.S. was a mild 0.4%, according to data from RealPage Market Analytics. That decline marked the seventh consecutive month of annual rent cuts across the nation. It also marked a slowdown from the year-ago reading in February 2025 when prices increased 0.8%. From a regional perspective, the supply-heavy South (-2.0%) weighed on rent change in the year-ending February 2026, followed by the West (-0.3%). Increases in the Northeast (2%) and Midwest (0.8%) minimized the performance decline. Homing in on the market level, eight of the worst rent change performers were South region markets. Cape Coral recorded the nation’s worst performance and the only double-digit decline (-11.8%). Three other Florida markets ranked among the 10 worst market performers in the past year, including Naples (-9.9%), North Port (-8.9%) and Tampa (-5.4%). Austin continued to post deep reductions in February with operators cutting rents 7%. Meanwhile, Denver operators reduced rents 6.3%. Effective asking rents fell 5.7% in Asheville, 5.3% in Boulder and 4.9% in Phoenix. Tied with a 4.8% decrease were San Antonio, Savannah and Tucson. Looking ahead, U.S. rent performance is expected to turn positive in the last half of 2026 as South region performance improves.