Press Release
Annual single family rent growth returns to seasonal norms
U.S.single-family rent prices increased 1.8% year over year in July 2026.
· This is the fifth consecutive month of accelerating rent price growth; however, increases remain below historical averages.
· Midwestern markets like Chicago continue to see the strongest rent price growth.
· The gap between high-end and low-end annual rent growth continues to widen.
IRVINE, Calif., September 17, 2026 – Cotality, a leading global property information, analytics, and data-enabled solutions provider, released its latest Single-Family Rent Index (SFRI) for July 2026, which tracks single-family rent price changes nationally. Single-family rent prices in July 2026 increased by 1.8% year-over-year, which is lower than last year’s annual increase of 2.3%. The July monthly increase of 0.4% continued a return to normal seasonal patterns that took hold in early 2026 after nearly a year of below-trend growth, which kept national rent growth below historic averages.
While single-family rent growth continued to strengthen in July, the growth varied considerably across price tiers. High-priced single-family rentals posted a 2.6% annual increase, while low-priced rentals rose just 0.6%, widening the gap between the two segments.
“The recent divergence should be viewed in a longer-term context. Over the past five years, rents for the low-price tier increased 26%, slightly more than the 24% gain for high-priced rentals. That suggests recent strength at the upper end may be less of a fundamental shift in demand and more of a catch-up period, as cumulative rent growth remains higher in the low-price tier despite the recent slowdown,” said Molly Boesel, senior principal economist at Cotality.
Rent growth for detached rentals (1.9%) slightly outpaced that of attached rentals (1.7%).
The Midwest continues to see the strongest rental growth in the nation, Chicago saw price growth of 5.0%, followed by Detroit (3.7%), Philadelphia (3.5%), New York (3.3%), and Miami (1.2%). Chicago has topped the list for rent growth since March 2025. Meanwhile, rent price growth remains slowest in the southern U.S. Houston, TX posted the lowest price growth for the sixth consecutive month at 0.2%, followed by Washington, DC and Dallas, TX which both saw 0.6% growth. In the largest 50 markets, four markets, all in Florida saw annual decreases in the Cotality SFRI.
The next Cotality Single-Family Rent Index will be released on October 15, 2026, featuring data for August 2026. For ongoing housing trends and data, visit the Cotality Insights blog: www.cotality.com/insights.
Methodology
The Cotality Single-Family Rent Index (SFRI) applies a repeat pairing methodology to single-family rental listing data in the Multiple Listing Service. The rental listings used to calculate the index include both attached and detached single-family homes, as well as condominiums. This report shows trends for the U.S. and the 10 largest U.S. metropolitan areas. In addition to these 10 metros, the Cotality SFRI is available for close to 100 metropolitan areas —including approximately 50 metros with four value tiers — and a national composite index. The indices are fully revised with each release to signal turning points sooner.
The Cotality Single-Family Rent Index analyzes data across four price tiers: Lower-priced, which represent rentals with prices 75% or below the regional median; lower-middle, 75% to 100% of the regional median; higher-middle, 100%-125% of the regional median; and higher-priced, 125% or more above the regional median.
Median rent price data is produced monthly by Cotality Rental Trends. Rental Trends is built on a database of more than 11 million rental properties (over 75% of all U.S. individually owned rental properties) and covers all 50 states and 17,500 ZIP codes.
About Cotality
Cotality accelerates data, insights, and workflows across the property ecosystem to enable industry professionals to surpass their ambitions and impact society. With billions of real-time data signals across the life cycle of a property, we unearth hidden risks and transformative opportunities for agents, lenders, carriers, and innovators. Get to know us at www.cotality.com.
Media Contact
Charity Head
Cotality
