Average rents in March were down 1.7% compared with March 2025, the largest year-over-year decline since the pandemic created more demand for apartments and drove a historic building boom.
The March decline was slightly greater than the 1.6% year-over-year drop in July 2020, at the height of pandemic chaos and a widespread flight from urban apartments, according to a new report by Apartment List, a company that posts rental listings online.
Eventually, the pandemic and housing shortages pushed up rents, as more people sought space for themselves and their families in suburbs and the Sun Belt, with year-over-year increases peaking at 18% in late 2021 and early 2022…