5 Studio Apartments for rent in West Chester, PA
July 2020 West Chester Rent Report
Welcome to the July 2020 West Chester Rent Report. West Chester rents declined over the past month. In this report, we'll evaluate trends in the West Chester rental market, including comparisons to cities throughout the metro, state, and nation.
July 2020 West Chester Rent Report
Welcome to the July 2020 West Chester Rent Report. West Chester rents declined over the past month. In this report, we'll evaluate trends in the West Chester rental market, including comparisons to cities throughout the metro, state, and nation.
West Chester rents declined significantly over the past month
West Chester rents have declined 0.4% over the past month, and are down moderately by 0.9% in comparison to the same time last year. Currently, median rents in West Chester stand at $1,323 for a one-bedroom apartment and $1,598 for a two-bedroom. West Chester's year-over-year rent growth lags the state average of 0.1%, as well as the national average of 0.2%.
Rents rising across the Philadelphia Metro
While rent prices have decreased in West Chester over the past year, the rest of the metro is seeing the opposite trend. Rents have risen in 7 of the largest 10 cities in the Philadelphia metro for which we have data. Here's a look at how rents compare across some of the largest cities in the metro.
- Lansdale has the most expensive rents in the Philadelphia metro, with a two-bedroom median of $1,740; the city has also seen rent growth of 2.6% over the past year, the fastest in the metro.
- Over the past year, King of Prussia has seen the biggest rent drop in the metro, with a decline of 1.5%. Median two-bedrooms there cost $1,485, while one-bedrooms go for $1,230.
- Pottstown has the least expensive rents in the Philadelphia metro, with a two-bedroom median of $1,004; rents were down 0.1% over the past month but remained flat year-over-year.
Many large cities nationwide show more affordable rents compared to West Chester
As rents have fallen moderately in West Chester, a few large cities nationwide have seen prices increase, in some cases substantially. Compared to most large cities across the country, West Chester is less affordable for renters.
- Although rents across cities in Pennsylvania have been marginally on the rise, the state's growth as a whole has held steady over the past year. For example, rents have grown by 0.5% in Allentown.
- West Chester's median two-bedroom rent of $1,598 is above the national average of $1,192. Nationwide, rents have held steady over the past year.
- While rents in West Chester fell moderately over the past year, the city of Columbus saw an increase of 0.9%.
- Renters will generally find more expensive prices in West Chester than most large cities. For example, Detroit has a median 2BR rent of $901, where West Chester is more than one-and-a-half times that price.
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.