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Apartment Market Shows Clearest Signs Yet of a Rebound

Article originally posted on Globe St on September 30, 2026

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The U.S. apartment market is showing stronger signs of stabilization as rent declines moderate and vacancies retreat from record highs, according to the latest data from Apartment List.

The national median rent declined 0.1% in September to $1,388, marking the first monthly decrease since January. But the drop was much smaller than usual as the rental market enters its seasonal slowdown.

From 2022 through 2025, rents fell an average of 0.5% in September, while the average decline from 2017 through 2019 was 0.3%. This September’s 0.1% decline marked the first time in years that rent growth outperformed the pre-pandemic average, which Apartment List called its clearest signal yet that the rental market is rebounding.

Year-over-year rents remain down 0.4%, but that measure has improved for five consecutive months after bottoming out at a 1.6% decline in April. The national median rent is now just $6 below its level a year ago.

Tightening Vacancies

Vacancies are also beginning to tighten following a historic multifamily construction boom. More than 600,000 new multifamily units were delivered in 2024, the most in a single year since 1986, according to Apartment List. Deliveries have since slowed, allowing the market to begin absorbing the recent supply influx.

Apartment List’s national vacancy index peaked at a record 7.3% in February and declined to 7% in September. Vacancy remains above the 2017-to-2019 average of 6.4%, and Apartment List estimates that it would take more than a year to return to that level if the current pace of tightening continues.

Other indicators show that the market remains soft. Apartments leased in September spent an average of 34 days on the market, up two days from August and the longest September list-to-lease period since Apartment List began tracking the measure in 2019.

Market By Market

Conditions also vary significantly by market. Of 55 large metropolitan areas with populations above 1 million, 33 recorded positive year-over-year rent growth in September.

Some of the Sun Belt markets hit hardest by the recent supply wave are beginning to improve. Austin rents were down 2.1% year-over-year in September, compared with a 6.2% decline in 2025, as construction slowed and new units were absorbed.

At the other end, San Francisco and San Jose posted the strongest annual rent growth among large metros, at 12% and 9%, respectively.

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