Press Release
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November 20, 2025
Single-family rent growth continues to decline
U.S. single-family rent prices increased 1% year over year in September 2025.
- Annual rent growth in September 2025 was the lowest it’s been in 15 years.
- Single-family rent decreased in one quarter of the largest 50 U.S. metros. Cape Coral and Tucson had the largest decreases.
- While growth slowed nationally, rent still increased 29% over the last five years, which means renters are paying an average of $610 a month or $7,300 a year in rent.
IRVINE, Calif., November 20, 2025 – Cotality, a leading global property information, analytics, and data-enabled solutions provider, released its latest Single-Family Rent Index (SFRI) with September 2025 data, which analyzes single-family rent price changes nationally and across major metropolitan areas. Single-family rent prices in September 2025 increased 1% from September 2024.
“The story of the single-family rental market is one of deceleration at the national level, but with significant local nuances. Annual single-family rent growth in September hit its lowest point in over 15 years—since June 2010. This is welcome news for renters struggling with affordability,” said Molly Boesel, Senior Principal Economist at Cotality. “However, despite this slowdown, single-family rents are still substantially higher, up 29% over the past five years, adding about $7,300 per year to the national average rental bill, a financial burden that has consumed about one-third of the increase in median family income over that time.”
Rent for high-end properties increased 1.3% year over year in September 2025, a drop from the 3.2% gain recorded in September 2024. Low-end property prices increased 1% year over year in September 2025, a drop from a 2.5% gain in September 2024.
“The national slowing does not tell the whole story. In many large metros, market conditions have shifted enough to cause rent declines, with 26% of the largest 50 metros seeing decreases in our Single-Family Rent Index (SFRI),” Boesel continued. “Markets like Dallas and Miami showed large decreases in the SFRI. Yet, for renters in these markets, the historical pain remains acute, as five-year rent increases in Miami and Dallas were $850 and $610 per month, respectively. This underscores the challenge: while the pace of growth is easing and even falling, the cumulative impact of past rent hikes continues to put immense pressure on household budgets.”
Among the 10 largest metro areas, Chicago remained at the top of the list for the highest rent growth, at 4.3% in September 2025. Washington, D.C. increased by 3.1% followed by Philadelphia where increases were 2% and Los Angeles where rents rose 1.5%. Dallas recorded a -1.1% decline in rent growth in September 2025, keeping it at the lowest rental growth in the nation.
The next Cotality Single-Family Rent Index will be released on December 18, featuring data for October 2025. 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.
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