Press Release
Single-family rent growth downshifts
U.S. single-family rent prices increased 1.1% year over year in February 2026.
- Single-family rent growth slowed to the slowest pace since 2010.
- Chicago and Philadelphia continue to see the highest year-over-year rent growth in the U.S.
- Disparities in growth remain large between regions and price tiers.
IRVINE, Calif., April 16, 2026 – Cotality, a leading global property information, analytics, and data-enabled solutions provider, released its latest Single-Family Rent Index (SFRI) with February 2026 data, which analyzes single-family rent price changes nationally and across major metropolitan areas. Single-family rent prices in February 2026 increased 1.1% year over year. This increase is a pronounced slowdown in pace from the 2.6% increase we saw between February 2024 and 2025, and it is one-third of the pre-2020 average of 3.3%.
Rent for high-priced properties increased 2.0% year-over-year in February 2026, a drop from the 3.1% gain recorded in February 2025. Low-priced rents increased by 0.4% in February 2026, a drop from a 2.0% gain in February 2025. Rent growth for detached rentals in February 2026 was 0.8%, while attached rentals saw a 0.5% increase. The widening affordability gap is putting more pressure on lower-income renters, while higher-income renters are better able to absorb rising costs.
“While it looks like rent increases have slowed significantly more for lower-income renters, when you look back at the last five years, rent growth is similar across all price tiers, highlighting how broadly gains were distributed earlier in the cycle. Higher-end rentals continue to show comparatively more stability, with prices rising 2.0% year-over-year despite ongoing deceleration,” said Molly Boesel, senior principal economist at Cotality. “Geographic differences remain substantial, but deceleration is becoming less widespread, with fewer metros seeing annual declines and slowdowns than last month. Los Angeles posted its first annual decline since the 2025 wildfires, signaling rents are beginning to trend back toward pre‑wildfire levels.”
Los Angeles’ price decline was the second lowest in the nation, while Miami, FL, showed the slowest growth at -1.2%. Meanwhile, Chicago and Philadelphia, PA saw the highest rent growth at 4.8% in February 2026, followed by Detroit, MI (3.7%), New York-New Jersey (2.5%), and Washington, D.C. (0.6%).
The next Cotality Single-Family Rent Index will be released on May 21, featuring data for March 2026. For ongoing housing trends and data, visit the Cotality Insights blog.
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 signa 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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