Inman News

Nationwide, single-family rent prices grew by 2.9 percent.

As rent prices continue to rise, some parts of the country — the Southwest, in particular — are seeing even more drastic growth.

According to the latest CoreLogic data released on Tuesday, monthly rent for a single-family home grew 2.9 percent year-over-year in June. The most dramatic rent hikes took place in the Southwest — Phoenix topped the list at 7.1 percent growth while Tucson and Las Vegas came close at 6.8 percent and 5.8 percent, respectively.

The reason for such growth has to do with the area’s rapidly-expanding job market. Phoenix saw its employment grow by 3.3 percent, more than double the nationwide average of 1.5 percent. Miami, meanwhile, saw the lowest rent price increases in the country at 1.1 percent.

“Increases in single-family rent across the country are fueled by increases in the number of renter households,” said Molly Boesel, principal economist at CoreLogic, in a prepared statement. “While the number of households grew overall in the United States through June, the growth was higher for renter households than for owner households, helping buoy demand for single-family rentals.”

Overall, rent price growth has stayed relatively stable in comparison to last year. In June 2018, prices increased by 3 percent after peaking at 4 percent growth in February 2016. Stabilization, however, is slower to catch up to the lower-end tier of the market. Rental properties priced at 75 percent less than an area’s median grew by 3.6 percent while those worth 125 percent more than an area’s median grew by only 2.7 percent.