Metros in central and western New York recorded some of the biggest price increases in the country
Rust Belt cities in central and western New York are getting a lot of love these days—maybe too much.
The median rent for a one-bedroom apartment in Syracuse increased by 29% in June to $1,200 compared with a year ago, and was up 2.6% from May, according to the latest report from rental platform Zumper.
That was by far the highest increase among the 100 cities surveyed in the monthly report, with Lincoln, Nebraska, coming in next with a 20.5% annual increase.
It was also the highest annual rent spike for Syracuse since the pandemic, though the past two months saw similar growth relative to last year, with gains of 27.9% and 28.6% in April and May, according to additional data from Zumper.
Three other New York cities were in the top 10 for rent growth. Not too far from Syracuse, the cities of Buffalo and Rochester saw 12.3% and 10.6% jumps, respectively, while New York City wasn’t far behind, with a 10.3% increase since last June.
Nationally, rent growth was much tamer, with a 1.5% bump for one-bedrooms to a national median of $1,526, while two-bedroom rents increased 1.9% to $1,900. The report didn’t break out luxury data.
The explosive increase in rents tracks the rapid growth in housing prices in western New York, which has seen sustained demand for months even as the housing market slows overall. In general, rising home prices and mortgage rates have put potential buyers on the sidelines, increasing demand for rentals.
As of May, the median listing price for a home in Syracuse was $155,000, up 19.3% from last year, according to Realtor.com. The median sales price was higher than asking, at $166,100, which still makes it one of the more affordable housing markets in the country.
Similarly, Buffalo saw a 19.5% increase in the median listing price in May, at $215,000, while homes sold slightly below that, according to Realtor.
Rochester, on the other hand, saw listing prices decrease 5.5% to $159,900 over the same period, though that’s following a runup in prices in the last few years. In fact, May was the first month that homes sold below asking (at a median sales price of $152,000) in more than three years—suggesting May was either an outlier or a turning point.
At the other end of the spectrum, many cities in the Southeast and Midwest saw rents fall in June. North Carolina made a special showing, with three cities in the bottom 10 for rent growth, starting with Raleigh, which posted the biggest year-over-year drop among the 100 cities on the list, falling 9.2% to $1,290. One-bedrooms in Durham were going for $1,430 per month, down 7.7% from last year, and Greensboro rents were down 5.4% to $970, which makes it the sixth most affordable market on the list.
In terms of sales, all three North Carolina markets saw home prices increase over last year, though it’s been a buyer’s market for most of the spring season, according to Realtor, with sales prices coming in well below asking in both Raleigh and Durham through May, and in Greensboro through April.
Despite the outliers, the overall rental market has settled down, perhaps for the first time since before the pandemic, Zumper CEO Anthemos Georgiades said in a statement.
“Following a soft winter, last month our national index recorded the highest monthly gains since the fall of 2022 and rent growth has begun to accelerate into summer,” he said.
Source: mansionglobal.com
