85 Apartments under $1,200 for rent in Washington, DC
July 2020 Washington, DC Rent Report
Welcome to the July 2020 Washington, DC Rent Report. DC rents declined over the past month. In this report, we'll evaluate trends in the DC rental market, including comparisons to cities throughout the metro, state, and nation.
DC rents decline sharply over the past month
DC rents have declined 0.7% over the past month, and are down moderately by 0.7% in comparison to the same time last year. Currently, median rents in DC stand at $1,353 for a one-bedroom apartment and $1,563 for a two-bedroom. This is the third straight month that the city has seen rent decreases after an increase in March. DC's year-over-year rent growth lags the national average of 0.2%.
Rents falling across the DC Metro
Rent prices have been decreasing not just in DC over the past year, but across the entire metro. Of the largest 10 cities in the DC metro for which we have data, 9 of them have seen prices drop. Here's a look at how rents compare across some of the largest cities in the metro.
- Over the past year, Waldorf has seen the biggest rent drop in the metro, with a decline of 7.5%. Median two-bedrooms there cost $1,891, while one-bedrooms go for $1,637.
- Frederick is the only city in the metro that has seen rents rise, with a year-over-year increase of 1.3%. The median two-bedroom there costs $1,616, while one-bedrooms go for $1,399.
- Bethesda has the most expensive rents of the largest cities in the DC metro, with a two-bedroom median of $2,393; rents went down 0.5% over the past month and 3.7% over the past year.
- DC proper has the least expensive rents in the DC metro, with a two-bedroom median of $1,563; rents fell 0.7% over the past month and 0.7% over the past year.
Other large cities nationwide show more affordable rents compared to DC
As rents have fallen moderately in DC, a few other large cities nationwide have also seen prices fall, in some cases substantially. Compared to most similar cities across the country, DC is less affordable for renters.
- DC's median two-bedroom rent of $1,563 is above the national average of $1,192. Nationwide, rents have held steady over the past year.
- While rents in DC fell moderately over the past year, many cities nationwide also saw decreases, including San Francisco (-2.2%), New York (-1.6%), and Boston (-1.6%).
- Renters will generally find more expensive prices in DC than most other large cities. For example, Philadelphia has a median 2BR rent of $1,180.
For more information check out our national report. You can also access our full data for cities and counties across the U.S. at this link.
Methodology - Recent Updates:
Data from private listing sites, including our own, tends to skew toward luxury apartments, which introduces sample bias when estimates are calculated directly from these listings. To address these limitations, we’ve recently made major updates to our methodology, which we believe have greatly improved the accuracy and reliability of our estimates.
Read more about our new methodology below, or see a more detailed post here.
Methodology:
Apartment List is committed to making our rent estimates the best and most accurate available. To do this, we start with reliable median rent statistics from the Census Bureau, then extrapolate them forward to the current month using a growth rate calculated from our listing data. In doing so, we use a same-unit analysis similar to Case-Shiller’s approach, comparing only units that are available across both time periods to provide an accurate picture of rent growth in cities across the country.
Our approach corrects for the sample bias inherent in other private sources, producing results that are much closer to statistics published by the Census Bureau and HUD. Our methodology also allows us to construct a picture of rent growth over an extended period of time, with estimates that are updated each month.
Read more about our methodology here.
About Rent Reports:
Apartment List publishes monthly reports on rental trends for hundreds of cities across the U.S. We intend these reports to be a source of reliable information that help renters and policymakers make sound decisions, and we invest significant time and effort in gathering and analyzing rent data. Our work is covered regularly by journalists across the country.
We are continuously working to improve our methodology and data, with the goal of providing renters with the information that they need to make the best decisions.