Nearly 3 in 4 rental listings are considered affordable, the highest for May in years
Affordability gains are biggest for apartments, as a wave of new buildings continues to pay off for renters
- 74% of rental listings on Zillow in May were affordable to a median-income household, the highest share ever recorded for this time of year, according to a new Zillow analysis.
- The share of listings priced below
$1,000 per month is up to 8.8%, also the highest for any May since 2022. - Nine out of 10 rentals are affordable in
Raleigh ,Austin ,Louisville andSalt Lake City .
After setting records during the pandemic, rent price growth has cooled since 2022, in large part due to a multifamily construction boom that reached a 50-year high in 2024. Builders reacted to strong housing demand during the pandemic and took advantage of borrowing costs that were still low. More apartments mean more options and less competition for any single unit, slowing rent growth and allowing incomes to catch up. The typical rent nationwide is up just 2% from a year ago, or
That figure of 74% of affordable rental listings is the highest for any May in Zillow's data, which dates to 2021. This means a median-income household would spend no more than 30% of its income on nearly 3 out of 4 available rentals, within the generally accepted threshold for affordable housing. While income growth is doing a lot of the work to boost this number, the share of rentals on Zillow listed for less than
"More supply on the market means more choices, and more choices mean landlords have to compete on price and incentives," said
The gains are most pronounced in the multifamily rental segment, where 79.4% of May listings on Zillow were affordable to a median-income household, up from 75.5% a year ago. Single-family rentals are also seeing a rising share of affordable homes, perhaps surprising because those rents have generally grown faster in recent years, in part because of increased demand from households priced out of buying their first home. Nearly half of single-family listings on Zillow (47.3%) were affordable in May, up from 44.9% at this time last year.
Not every market is becoming more affordable; the share of affordable rental listings fell from last year in seven major metros.
The picture for renters nationwide is even better than the headline rent makes it appear: Nearly 40% of rental listings on Zillow offered a concession in May (39.6%), essentially flat from April and up from 35.1% a year ago.
Metro Area* | Typical | Typical | Share of Listings | Share of | Share of Listings |
2.0 % | 74.1 % | 8.8 % | 39.6 % | ||
4.5 % | 33.4 % | 0.6 % | 17.5 % | ||
1.4 % | 43.6 % | 0.8 % | 32.2 % | ||
5.4 % | 62.4 % | 2.2 % | 20.6 % | ||
-0.1 % | 86.8 % | 8.0 % | 63.4 % | ||
-0.6 % | 80.7 % | 14.3 % | 53.8 % | ||
0.0 % | 84.8 % | 0.7 % | 56.5 % | ||
3.5 % | 76.8 % | 3.6 % | 33.2 % | ||
1.1 % | 25.6 % | 0.4 % | 28.1 % | ||
1.5 % | 85.0 % | 3.2 % | 58.8 % | ||
2.5 % | 50.2 % | 0.4 % | 29.8 % | ||
-0.3 % | 83.1 % | 7.3 % | 59.8 % | ||
7.1 % | 68.4 % | 0.9 % | 26.7 % | ||
2.2 % | 49.9 % | 2.7 % | 29.0 % | ||
2.9 % | 82.8 % | 14.0 % | 24.0 % | ||
1.4 % | 82.5 % | 2.5 % | 53.1 % | ||
3.6 % | 89.0 % | 5.8 % | 40.8 % | ||
1.6 % | 50.7 % | 0.4 % | 37.8 % | ||
-1.0 % | 61.4 % | 1.5 % | 50.5 % | ||
-1.5 % | 87.8 % | 4.9 % | 65.8 % | ||
2.0 % | 85.8 % | 4.9 % | 39.0 % | ||
3.8 % | 86.9 % | 18.0 % | 26.3 % | ||
0.4 % | 69.5 % | 1.7 % | 54.8 % | ||
0.5 % | 83.7 % | 4.1 % | 65.3 % | ||
-1.8 % | 89.0 % | 21.8 % | 56.6 % | ||
0.6 % | 89.3 % | 2.2 % | 48.2 % | ||
1.9 % | 76.3 % | 2.1 % | 30.7 % | ||
4.0 % | 77.6 % | 16.6 % | 25.8 % | ||
3.2 % | 83.9 % | 15.3 % | 29.7 % | ||
-2.2 % | 91.0 % | 11.9 % | 64.7 % | ||
0.1 % | 78.5 % | 6.4 % | 53.0 % | ||
3.5 % | 86.6 % | 12.5 % | 33.6 % | ||
1.5 % | 88.0 % | 9.6 % | 50.6 % | ||
2.4 % | 86.7 % | 12.2 % | 48.7 % | ||
3.9 % | 77.5 % | 22.5 % | 23.6 % | ||
5.5 % | 76.9 % | 0.4 % | 29.5 % | ||
0.1 % | 78.6 % | 2.8 % | 64.7 % | ||
5.8 % | 78.0 % | 2.8 % | 25.2 % | ||
3.7 % | 53.1 % | 2.6 % | 12.8 % | ||
0.9 % | 82.6 % | 6.4 % | 48.4 % | ||
3.9 % | 74.8 % | 12.2 % | 20.9 % | ||
2.8 % | 88.7 % | 29.8 % | 31.4 % | ||
0.0 % | 94.8 % | 3.1 % | 62.7 % | ||
0.9 % | 81.5 % | 26.4 % | 41.7 % | ||
3.3 % | 81.3 % | 3.3 % | 48.1 % | ||
2.6 % | 90.5 % | 20.1 % | 42.0 % | ||
0.4 % | 59.6 % | 10.8 % | 19.3 % | ||
0.4 % | 90.2 % | 5.7 % | 63.4 % | ||
3.0 % | 77.1 % | 1.9 % | 22.1 % | ||
3.3 % | 75.1 % | 11.3 % | 9.6 % | ||
1.2 % | 85.5 % | 19.9 % | 39.2 % |
*Table ordered by market size
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