ST. LOUIS — The St. Louis market, including Metro East, experienced an increase in residential rents year over year through March, but not nearly as much as in some other major U.S. cities, according to a new report.
The Realtor.com report looked at the median rent changes in the 50 largest U.S. metros between March 2020 and March 2021. The report defines rental units as apartment communities and private rentals such as condos, townhomes and single-family homes.
The St. Louis market's median rent in March 2021 was $1,075, up 5.9% from the same month a year ago.
Across the state, median rent last month in the Kansas City market grew just 1% year over year, to $1,059.
In the Chicago market, the only Illinois city in the report, median rent fell to $1,600 in March, down 3% from a year ago. That market includes Naperville and Elgin, Illinois, and nearby counties in Indiana and Wisconsin.
The biggest year-over-year rent increase was in the New Orleans-Metairie, Louisiana, metro area, with median rent growing by 15.6%. to $1,305 last month. The San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, California, metro area saw the largest year-over-year rent decrease at -14.1%, to $2,685.
The national median rent, calculated by averaging median rent in the 50 largest metros, hit $1,463, a 1.1% increase from March 2020, according to the report. Rent growth was at 3.2% before Covid-19 reversed that trend. Now, as the nation begins to recover, rent prices are expected to continue to rise over the next few months, Realtor.com Chief Economist Danielle Hale said in a statement.
“Although we’re still below the 3.2% growth we were seeing before Covid, average rent growth in the nation’s largest housing markets saw its first uptick since July 2020, and rents are poised to rise at a quickening pace as recovery continues. However, rents are not rising in all markets,” Hale said. “The tech markets and several big metros like Chicago and Los Angeles continue to see rent declines, but generally at a slower pace than in recent months, which could signal a turnaround in the coming months."
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