Updated October 2026. Market snapshot: September 2026. Current market figures come from Apartment List's October 2026 National Rent Report. Historical comparisons use Apartment List data and research.
When a headline says rents are falling, you need to know where, compared with when, and which rents it measured. This guide shows you how to find all three, so that "rents are falling" turns into something you can check against the apartments you could actually rent. It also explains the difference between city, metro, and national figures, and how to tell how many apartments are available where you live. Those availability measures are what people mean by a renter's market.
Pick one source, one geography, and one comparison period, and stick with all three. Three steps are enough to start: open the rent report for your city, compare its yearly and monthly changes, then look at actual listings at your price point.
Apartment List's city rent report pages carry the rent figures for one city. Each shows the median rent for a new lease, its change over the past month and year, and how the city compares with its metro area and the nation. The median is the midpoint, with half of rents higher and half lower. The address pattern is apartmentlist.com/rent-report/[state]/[city]; Austin is one example.
The National Rent Report carries the national picture each month. It adds two measures: the share of apartments listed as available for rent in the buildings Apartment List tracks, and how long apartments had been listed before they leased. Note the data month as well as the edition: the October 2026 National Rent Report, published September 29, 2026, covers September 2026 rental-market data. Apartment List's Chief Economist walks through the national report, a city report, and the data downloads in How to Track Rent Trends Over Time - A 2026 Guide.
Metro-level availability and days-listed figures are in the files on Apartment List's Data Downloads page. They are not required for the three steps above.
A renter's market is one where properties are competing harder for tenants: more apartments listed as available, listings that stay up longer, and move-in offers. The label describes competition among properties, so a market can be a renter's market while still being expensive for your income.
Two metro areas in September 2026 show how far apart markets can be, according to the Apartment List Vacancy Index and time-on-market data:
Austin area: 9.1% of apartments listed as available, roughly one in 11, and apartments leased that month had been listed for about 40 days.
San Francisco area: 3.3% available, about one in 30, and about 23 days.
Both are metro-area figures; the city of Austin or the city of San Francisco on its own could read differently. Neither figure tells you how long an apartment you like will stay available, so ask the property when the application is due.
Apartment List's rankings of renter's markets and landlord's markets show where each large metro stands. In those rankings, a renter's market has more available apartments than the country as a whole, slower leasing, and rent flat or lower than a year earlier. A landlord's market is the reverse on all three. Austin led the first list and San Francisco the second on August 2026 data.
What Each Market Measure Tells You
| Measure | What it tells you | What it cannot tell you alone |
|---|---|---|
| Rent change | Whether prices rose or fell over a stated period | Whether today's prices fit your budget |
| Available apartments | What share of units in the established buildings Apartment List tracks are listed as available for rent | How many suitable apartments are available in your neighborhood |
| Days listed before leasing | How long the apartments that leased had been listed | How long a particular apartment will remain available |
| Move-in offers | Whether a property is offering an incentive | Whether its total cost beats another apartment's |
Source: Apartment List Rent Index, Vacancy Index, and time-on-market data.
Apartments leased in September 2026 had been listed about two weeks longer than those leased in September 2021, and longer than in any September since the data begin in 2019.
Days on the Market for Apartments Leased Nationally in September, 2019 to 2026
| September of | Median days from listing to lease |
|---|---|
| 2019 | 28 |
| 2020 | 27 |
| 2021 | 19 |
| 2022 | 22 |
| 2023 | 27 |
| 2024 | 30 |
| 2025 | 32 |
| 2026 | 34 |
Source: Apartment List time-on-market data through September 2026, U.S. figures, rounded to the nearest day.
More available apartments and longer listing times give properties more reason to offer deals or adjust prices. Even so, a city can have more available apartments overall while apartments at your price point remain hard to find.
Yes, because every rent change has a starting point, and the starting point decides the sign. The same September 2026 national median, compared with four dates:
Change in the U.S. Median Rent Through September 2026, by Comparison Period
| View of U.S. rent | Change through September 2026 |
|---|---|
| Same month last year: compared with September 2025 | Down 0.4% |
| Since the start of the year: compared with January 2026 | Up 2.4% |
| Since the national peak: compared with August 2022 | Down 3.7% |
| Since the pandemic began: compared with March 2020 | Up 19.6% |
Source: Apartment List Rent Index, September 2026 data; U.S. median rent for new leases. All four rows compare dollar rents without adjusting for inflation or wages.
Nationally, rents rose in each of the seven months from February through August 2026, then slipped 0.1% in September as the market entered its usual off-season. September was still lower than September 2025. Rents dip most years in the fall and winter and climb in the spring and summer, and the 2026 climb recovered most of the previous dip without erasing it. Apartment List's January 2026 research found the seasonal swing smaller than before the pandemic, with the fastest growth now arriving in March instead of May.
Each comparison answers a different question. The same month across years looks past the seasonal pattern; consecutive months tell you what changed most recently. Rent can also be down from its peak and still about a fifth higher than before the pandemic: "down from the peak" and "expensive" describe the same rent. When someone tells you rent is down, the useful follow-up is: since when? For how rents traveled from 2019 to that peak and back, see How Has the Rental Market Changed Since 2019? A Renter's Guide.
A city estimate covers the city itself. A metro estimate includes the central city and surrounding communities, so the two figures can differ. In September 2026, rents in the city of San Francisco were 25.7% above a year earlier, according to the Apartment List Rent Index. The San Francisco metro area was 12.3% above. Both are correct; they describe different places. When you compare two figures, make sure they share a geography.
The national figure covers an even wider mix, and in September 2026 it pointed the opposite way from most large metros.
The 55 Largest Metro Areas in September 2026
| Rent for a new lease was... | Metro areas |
|---|---|
| Higher than a year earlier | 33 |
| Lower than a year earlier | 22 |
| Within 1% of a year earlier, either way | 20 |
| Lower than in August | 39 |
Source: Apartment List Rent Index, September 2026 data; the count of metros lower than in August is as published in Apartment List's October 2026 National Rent Report. Metro areas with more than one million residents. The last two rows overlap with the first two.
The national estimate measures rent across the country. It does not count how many metros have rising rents, so most large metros can rise while the national estimate falls. For the 20 within 1%, "down" or "up" meant "about flat." The comparison period also flips the majority: against a year earlier, most large metros were up; against August, most were down. Treat the national figure as the backdrop, and read your metro area's own line.
They measure different things, and sometimes different renters. Some reports summarize asking rents: the prices listed for apartments advertised online right now. Others estimate what renters paid on leases they signed, across a broader range of homes. The mix of properties changes the result too: if a site suddenly lists many expensive new buildings, its average asking rent can rise without any older building raising its price.
According to its published methodology, the Apartment List Rent Index tracks changes when the same units rent again, and Apartment List's median rent estimates apply that index to Census data. Together they describe rents paid on new leases. Advertised prices for vacant apartments are a different measure, and renewal offers are a third, priced for the person already living in the unit and tracked by neither.
Before treating two reports as contradictory, check whether they use the same geography, bedroom count, month, and measure. Use listings to see what is available now and the same rent report each month to follow change over time.
Dates: Research is cited by its publication date, which may differ from the dates of the data it analyzes.
Rent for a new lease: The Apartment List Rent Index tracks rent changes for new leases using repeat rentals of the same units, and Apartment List's estimated median rents apply that index to Census data (methodology). The figures are estimates, and they do not describe renewal offers.
Available apartments: The Apartment List Vacancy Index is the share of units listed as available for rent in the established buildings (those past their initial leasing period) that list on Apartment List. Professionally managed buildings are more likely to list, so the index describes availability in those buildings and does not count every available home (methodology). A figure such as "one in 11" is the index value written as a rounded fraction.
Days listed before leasing: For each apartment leased in a month, Apartment List counts the days between listing and lease and reports the median across all apartments leased that month (methodology). The figures describe how long the apartments that leased had been on the market; they do not measure how long any renter had to decide.
Comparisons: Percentage changes compare the stated month with the stated starting point, in dollars, without adjusting for inflation or wages.
Open your city's rent report at apartmentlist.com/rent-report/[state]/[city], or find it from the National Rent Report's table of the 100 largest cities.
Read the yearly change, then the monthly change. The yearly change shows where rent stands against the same season last year; the monthly change shows what happened most recently. The same page shows how your city compares with its metro area.
Check how many apartments are available and how long they take to lease. The National Rent Report carries the national figures each month, and the Data Downloads page carries every metro area. If your metro area is above the national figure on both measures, properties there are competing harder for renters than the country as a whole.
Compare the rent you pay, or the renewal you were offered, with what similar apartments nearby are listed for. Rate My Rent does that from your zip code, bedroom and bathroom count, and monthly rent.
Then look at actual listings at your price point. The market figures tell you how much competition to expect. The listings tell you what you can rent.
Hold one source, one geography, and one comparison period steady, and a headline about falling rents becomes a question you can answer for your own market. Check your city's latest figures in the National Rent Report, then browse available apartments to see what that market offers at your price point.
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