HOUSTON – (By Dale King, Realty News Report) – Single-family rental rates have surged nationwide. In June 2021, single-family rents rose at the fastest pace seen since 2005.
CoreLogic, a global provider of property information, analytics and data-enabled solutions, reports that its Single-Family Rent Index (SFRI) for June 2021 recorded a national rent increase of 7.5 percent year-over-year.
“Rent growth continued to exceed pre-pandemic rates across all price tiers for the third consecutive month,” CoreLogic noted in its analysis of the top 20 metropolitan areas.
Houston Single-Family Rents Up 8.1 Percent Over Last Year
Texas, which has seen substantial gains in single-family home sales and rental prices, outpaced the national average for one-family rental units.
“Single-family rent growth accelerated in June, bouncing back from last year’s weak growth,” said Molly Boesel, principal economist at CoreLogic. “The recovery was even more pronounced for detached rentals, which experienced price growth more than double that of attached rentals. For prospective homebuyers who have been priced out or unable to find a home in today’s supply-constrained market, detached rentals are overwhelmingly preferred and remain in high demand.”
CoreLogic placed three Texas metropolitan areas among the top 10 of the 20 markets with the fastest rental growth. The Austin/Round Rock market ranked fifth with an 11.9 percent year-over-year increase in single-family rents, followed by Dallas/Plano in sixth with an 11.3 percent rise. The Houston/The Woodlands/Sugar Land region saw single-family rents increase 8.1 percent compared to 2020.
A Zillow rental report ranked Houston sixth among cities with the largest year-over-year percentage gains in the single-family rental market. Typical lease prices for July 2021 were about $1,504 per month, reflecting an 8.8 percent year-over-year increase.
These rental increases coincide with substantial gains in home prices this year.
Zillow explained: “Rent growth for July continued to build on momentum that began in March, following a period of sluggishness that started with the COVID-19 outbreak in 2020. Nationally, typical monthly rents rose to $1,843 in July, surpassing June’s record appreciation and rising 9.2 percent, or $156, above July 2020.”
Zillow’s data for Texas cities showed similar trends: San Antonio rental rates rose about 11 percent in July year-over-year, while Austin saw a 16.8 percent increase for the same period.
Phoenix recorded the largest year-over-year increase in single-family rents in June 2021 at 16.5 percent, according to Zillow. Several tourist destinations that were hit hard by the pandemic are now showing strong recovery, with Las Vegas reporting the second-highest rent gain at 12.9 percent. Tucson was third at 12.5 percent and Miami fourth at 12.4 percent.
Down in Beantown
Boston, by contrast, has experienced the largest decline among the 20 metros for 11 consecutive months, with an annual decrease of 2.7 percent in June. However, the rate of decline in Boston is beginning to slow compared to prior months.
Other metros with strong annual rent growth are concentrated in the Sun Belt, including Tampa (21.4 percent) and Riverside (19.9 percent). By July, rents were positive year-over-year in all major metros, with previous holdouts New York, San Francisco and San Jose finally posting yearly gains.
Aug. 23, 2021 Realty News Report Copyright 2021
For more about Texas real estate, check out the book Houston 2020: America’s Boom Town – An Extreme Close Up by Ralph Bivins. Available on Amazon
“Houston 2020” Ebook version https://tinyurl.com/4xm7z8b5
File: Single Family Rents Skyrocket
File: (2). Molly Boesel. CoreLogic. Single-Family Rent Index (SFRI), Single Family Rents Skyrocket in 2021.