Median Arlington apartment rents dropped 0.9 percent from September to October, in line with historic norms but slightly above the 0.7-percent national dropoff.
The median rental rate for county apartments for the month was $2,275 ($2,146 for one-bedroom units and $2,567 for two bedrooms), according to figures reported Oct. 31 by Apartment List.
Nationally, the median rental rate for the month was $1,354. In the Washington region, it was $1,990.
Arlington’s drop in month-over-month median rents was the 32nd largest among the 100 major U.S. urban areas tracked by Apartment List. Reno (Nev.) had the biggest decline, at 2.2 percent, while Norfolk posted the largest gain, at 1.7 percent.
Year-over-year, however, Arlington is in positive territory, with median rents up 2.3 percent. Since the onset of the pandemic, median rents in the county are up 11.4 percent.
But it has been a roller-coaster ride, with median rents dropping 13 percent in 2020, then rebounding with gains of 16.3 percent in 2021 and 4.3 percent in 2022.
Regionally, rents fell in October in 81 of the nation’s 100 largest urban areas, and prices are down year-over-year in 66.
Arlington’s 2.3-percent annualized growth rate compares to 1.5 percent for the nation as a whole. For the same period, Virginia saw a drop of 1.2 percent in median rental costs.
Not unlike the home-sales market, where prices tend to ease as summer gives way to autumn, rental prices also tend to drop. And 2023 is proving no exception.
“This is the second steepest October rent decline that we’ve seen in the history of our index, going back to 2017,” Apartment List analysts said.
(Despite the cooldown of the past year, the national median rent is still nearly $250 per month more expensive than it was just three years ago.)
On the supply side of the market, Apartment List’s vacancy index currently stands at 6.4 percent, slightly higher than the pre-pandemic average.
“This represents the culmination of vacancies gradually easing for two full years after a historic tightening in 2021,” analysts said. “And with the construction pipeline of new apartments still near record levels, we expect that there will continue to be an abundance of vacant units on the market in the year ahead.”
The sharpest rent declines over the past year have been in Oakland (-8.2%) as demand in the Bay Area remains sluggish, and Austin (-6.4%) as an influx of new supply has begun to impact prices.
The fastest rent growth of late has been occurring in metros across the Midwest and the Northeast. Most of the metros ranking high for rent growth over the past year are located there, including the Providence, Grand Rapids, New York City, Milwaukee, Kansas City and Hartford metros. But even these have seen cooling in more recent months.
Among the 100 urban areas tracked, the highest median rent for the month was found in Irvine, Calif. ($3,149), with the lowest in Cleveland ($769). The national median rent was $1,354.
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For the full national report, see the Website at https://www.apartmentlist.com/research/national-rent-data. For information on areas across Northern Virginia, see the Website at https://www.apartmentlist.com/rent-report/va/arlington.
