Americans searching for affordable apartments may be in luck this summer, as the downward rental trend continues, according to Realtor.com’s May Rental Report.
Last month marked the 34th consecutive month of year-over-year declines for studio to two-bedroom rents across the country’s 50 largest metro areas. The national median asking rent declined by 1.5 percent, or $26, compared with a year ago, standing at $1,686 per month in May.
An analysis of each apartment category showed that median studio rents nationwide fell by 1.9 percent, or $27, year over year to $1,422. One-bedroom rents were down by 1.5 percent, or $24, to $1,573, and two-bedroom rents also dropped by 1.5 percent, or $28, to $1,885.
“As we approach summer, we expect the median asking rent to tick up monthly—a typical seasonal pattern,” the report states. “However, given the surge in multifamily construction over the past few years, we anticipate continued year-over-year declines. In other words, modest rent relief is likely to continue in 2026.”
The report also shows Las Vegas, Nevada, as the nation’s leader for local renter loyalty, while Raleigh, North Carolina, garnered the most out-of-town renters.
In the first quarter, 70 percent of the national website’s online rental searches by Las Vegas residents stayed within the metro. Austin, San Antonio, and Houston, Texas, as well as San Diego, California, also ranked high for retaining local renters.
During the same time frame, Raleigh attracted the highest share of non-local market renters, with 69 percent of apartment web views stemming from outside the metro. Richmond, Virginia, along with Hartford, Connecticut, Providence, Rhode Island, and Baltimore, Maryland, also drew large shares of potential renters from other regions, particularly New York, Boston, and Washington.
“Local loyalty in markets like Las Vegas reflects renters finding real value close to home as rents soften,” Realtor.com chief economist Danielle Hale said in a news release. “In markets like Raleigh, strong job opportunities and relative affordability are pulling in renters from across the country.”
Detroit experienced a surprising shift with out-of-market rental demand almost doubling between the first quarter of 2020 and the first quarter of 2026, from 28.1 percent to 51.8 percent.
A few metropolitan areas such as San Francisco saw the median rent rise by 1.2 percent year over year. Renter loyalty in the City by the Bay rose from 44 percent in the first quarter of 2020 to 55 percent in the first quarter of 2026. Out-of-market demand also increased from 43.1 percent to 64.1 percent over the same time.
However, the data indicate that homeownership in the city has also climbed from 49 percent to 51.7 percent in just one year. The report attributes the rise to the metro’s burgeoning artificial intelligence (AI) and tech boom.
“Two things appear to be happening in San Francisco’s rental market,” Realtor.com economist Jiayi Xu said. “First, rising wealth tied to the AI boom may be enabling more renters to transition into homeownership, pulling them out of the rental search pool altogether.”
The second, noted Xu, is that renters already living in the city are less likely to look for places in other markets.
New York City, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and Virginia Beach all experienced median rent increases of more than 2 percent.
California’s San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara metropolitan area remains the nation’s most expensive rental market, with a median rent of $3,351 per month. Oklahoma City was the only metro among the top 50 to offer a median rent of under $1,000 a month at $913.
An April 2026 WalletHub report analyzing both large and small metros named Bismarck, North Dakota, as the city offering the most affordable rents in the nation based on the lowest rent-to-income ratio. There, the median rent is about 15.3 percent of the median annual income. In comparison, Miami residents spend about 33.8 percent of their income on rent.
“This gives people in the least expensive cities a clear financial advantage; the money they save on rent could go toward their emergency fund or savings for future home ownership,” WalletHub analyst Chip Lupo said in the report.
Apartments.com reports the average rent in Bismarck at $1,128 per month, increasing by 4.2 percent over last year.
North Dakota’s Fargo and South Dakota’s Sioux Falls also ranked among the top five most affordable rental markets, according to the WalletHub report, along with Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and Charleston, West Virginia.
Andrew Burnstine, associate professor at Lynn University in Boca Raton, Florida, noted that most affordable cities offer rents at or below 30 percent of household income.
“Vacancy rates tell the next part of the story, since anything near 5 percent or lower tends to push rents upward quickly,” he said in the report. “Strong tenant protections, reliable property management, and access to jobs and transportation complete the picture.”
