--- title: Rent Prices Post Their First Annual Decline Since 2020 description: While renters are still paying high prices, new data says that median rent is dropping as the environment returns to pre-pandemic levels. authors: - name: Mary Ellen Cagnassola role: Reporter url: https://money.com/author/mary-ellen-cagnassola/ bio: Mary Ellen (M.E.) Cagnassola is a former Money reporter who specialized in U.S. rent and real estate, with a focus on market trends and affordability. education: Rutgers University, BA Journalism at_money_since: 2021 articles: 205 covers: - Housing - Banking - Business - Career Advice - Credit - Credit Cards - Economy and Politics - Education - Identity Theft - Insurance - Investing - Lifestyle - Loans - Mortgages - Personal Finance - Pets - Professional Services - Retirement - Shopping - Taxes former_staff: true editors: - name: Brad Tuttle role: Senior Editor url: https://money.com/author/brad-tuttle/ bio: Brad Tuttle is a former senior editor at Money with over 10 years’ experience covering a vast number of personal finance topics, including careers, cars, travel, budgeting, investing, insurance, credit cards, consumer psychology, real estate, banking, and shopping and deals. education: Columbia University School of Journalism, MS at_money_since: 2014 articles: 366 covers: - Housing - Banking - Business - Career Advice - Credit - Credit Cards - Economy and Politics - Education - Health and Wellness - Identity Theft - Insurance - Investing - Lifestyle - Loans - Mortgages - Personal Finance - Pets - Professional Services - Retirement - Shopping - Taxes - Technology social: - https://twitter.com/bradrtuttle - https://linkedin.com/in/brad-tuttle-834b225 former_staff: true published: '2023-04-14T19:53:13.000Z' modified: '2024-01-10T12:45:58.000Z' section: Housing tags: - News - Rent word_count: 398 canonical: https://money.com/rent-prices-decline-march/ type: NewsArticle source: structured-blocks --- > **Disclosure:** We research all brands listed and may earn a fee from our partners. Research and financial considerations may influence how brands are displayed. Not all brands are included. [Learn more](https://money.com/page/disclaimer/). ![Picture of New Orleans](https://img.money.com/2023/04/News-Rent-price-down.jpg) *New Orleans, Louisiana* Renters are finally catching a break: For the first time since the start of the pandemic, U.S. rent prices are down on an annual basis. [New analysis](https://www.redfin.com/news/redfin-rental-report-march-2023/) from real estate brokerage Redfin shows that although tenants are still paying a lot more on rent than they were in pre-pandemic times, they have good reason to feel optimistic about [prices stabilizing](https://money.com/rent-to-fall-nearly-everywhere/). In fact, Redfin's experts say rents are finally making their way back down to earth after three years of surging costs. The national median rent price fell to $1,937 in March, a .4% year-over-year decrease, according to Redfin. While rent growth started [cooling off](https://money.com/rent-prices-drop-affordability-problem/) at the end of last summer, this is the first annual decline the market has seen since March 2020. Rent costs skyrocketed in 2021 and 2022 because incomes rose around the same time, and more millennials started having families, according to Redfin. But now that [inflation](https://money.com/march-2023-inflation-interest-rates-market/) and [recession fears](https://money.com/recession-poll-saving-money/) have created economic uncertainty, fewer renters are taking out new leases, which means more vacancies as demand drops. Redfin says a surplus of supply stemming from the pandemic homebuilding boom also played a big role in last month’s rent decreases. ## Cities where rent prices fell the most Redfin's analysis of the 50 largest U.S. metros found the biggest year-over-year rent decreases in the following cities. The largest decline in rent prices was Austin, which was a [magnet for newcomers moving](https://money.com/workers-moving-cities-remote-work/) in during the pandemic. 1. Austin, Texas (-11%) 2. Chicago, Illinois (-9.2%) 3. New Orleans, Louisiana (-3%) 4. Birmingham, Alabama (-2.9%) 5. Cincinnati, Ohio (-2.9%) 6. Sacramento, California (-2.8%) 7. Las Vegas, Nevada (-2.4%) 8. Atlanta, Georgia (-2.3%) 9. Phoenix, Arizona (-2.1%) 10. Baltimore, Maryland (-2%) 11. Minneapolis, Minnesota (-1.6%) 12. Houston, Texas (-1.5%) 13. San Antonio, Texas (-1.3%) ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "@id": "https://money.com/rent-prices-decline-march/#breadcrumb", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://money.com" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Housing", "item": "https://money.com/housing/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "Renting", "item": "https://money.com/renting/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "name": "Rent Prices Post Their First Annual Decline Since 2020" } ] }, { "@type": "WebSite", "@id": "https://money.com/#website", "url": "https://money.com", "name": "Money", "publisher": { "@id": "https://money.com/#organization" } }, { "@type": "WebPage", "@id": "https://money.com/rent-prices-decline-march/#webpage", "url": "https://money.com/rent-prices-decline-march/", "name": "Rent Prices Post Their First Annual Decline Since 2020", "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://money.com/#website" }, "datePublished": "2023-04-14T19:53:13.000Z", "mainEntity": { "@id": "https://money.com/rent-prices-decline-march/" }, "inLanguage": "en-US", "breadcrumb": { "@id": "https://money.com/rent-prices-decline-march/#breadcrumb" }, "dateModified": "2024-01-10T12:45:58.000Z" }, { "@type": "NewsArticle", "headline": "Rent Prices Post Their First Annual Decline Since 2020", "articleSection": "Housing", "image": [ { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://img.money.com/2023/04/News-Rent-price-down.jpg", "width": 2880, "height": 1920, "caption": "News-Rent-price-down" } ], "author": [ { "@type": "Person", "name": "Mary Ellen Cagnassola", "url": "https://money.com/author/mary-ellen-cagnassola/", "@id": "https://money.com/author/mary-ellen-cagnassola/#author", "description": "Mary Ellen (M.E.) Cagnassola is a former Money reporter who specialized in U.S. rent and real estate, with a focus on market trends and affordability.\r\n\r\n", "image": "https://img.money.com/2023/02/mary-ellen.png?w=350&h=430&crop=1", "alumniOf": "Rutgers University, BA Journalism" } ], "publisher": "https://money.com/#organization", "datePublished": "2023-04-14T19:53:13.000Z", "description": "While renters are still paying high prices, new data says that median rent is dropping as the environment returns to pre-pandemic levels.", "abstract": "While renters are still paying high prices, new data says that median rent is dropping as the environment returns to pre-pandemic levels.", "@id": "https://money.com/rent-prices-decline-march/", "inLanguage": "en-US", "dateModified": "2024-01-10T12:45:58.000Z", "editor": [ { "@type": "Person", "name": "Brad Tuttle", "url": "https://money.com/author/brad-tuttle/", "@id": "https://money.com/author/brad-tuttle/#author", "description": "Brad Tuttle is a former senior editor at Money with over 10 years’ experience covering a vast number of personal finance topics, including careers, cars, travel, budgeting, investing, insurance, credit cards, consumer psychology, real estate, banking, and shopping and deals.\r\n\r\n", "image": "https://img.money.com/2014/01/Brad-Tuttle.png?w=226&h=247&crop=1", "alumniOf": "Columbia University School of Journalism, MS", "sameAs": [ "https://twitter.com/bradrtuttle", "https://linkedin.com/in/brad-tuttle-834b225" ] } ], "wordCount": 398, "keywords": [ "News", "Rent" ], "about": [ { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Housing in the United States", "sameAs": [ "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Housing_in_the_United_States" ] }, { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Renting", "sameAs": [ "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renting" ] } ] } ] } ```