Yardi: US apartment rents up 0.7% annually in September as renewals slow to 1.7%

The average advertised U.S. apartment rent slipped $1 in September to $1,775, down 0.1% from August but up 0.7% from a year earlier, Yardi Matrix reported Oct. 7.

Renewal rent growth slowed to 1.7% in September, the lowest since before 2020, Yardi said. Because advertised rents have been negative in many markets over the past two to three years, renewals had been a key source of revenue growth, but that support is fading as existing rents converge with advertised rents.

Third-quarter rents rose from the second quarter for the first time since 2022, up 0.3% on the quarter, which Yardi called an indication that fundamentals may be stabilizing after several years of supply-driven weakness.

Yardi reported two occupancy measures as of August. Stabilized occupancy, which counts properties operating at least 18 months or 90% occupied, was 94.3%, down 30 basis points year over year. Total occupancy, which includes all properties, was 93.9%, up 10 basis points.

The gap between the two peaked at 0.9 percentage points in the second quarter of 2025 and has narrowed to 0.4 percentage points, with total occupancy up 50 basis points since the start of the year.

Yardi reads that as evidence that new properties in the lease-up phase in high-supply markets are beginning to fill as deliveries wane and demand remains strong. As this publication argued in September, the units still in lease-up will set rents for operators and for the buyers underwriting them.

Single-family build-to-rent rents fell $4 in September to $2,245, the segment's first negative month since January, though they remained up 0.8% year over year and continued to modestly outperform multifamily.

Market performance is becoming less polarized, per the report. Gateway markets are still posting solid rent increases, while rent growth in high-supply Sun Belt areas is becoming less negative as supply growth slackens. Renter-by-necessity outperformed lifestyle rents in most markets, and renewals are under particular pressure in high-supply metros including Austin and Phoenix.

Where advertised rents ran negative for two to three years, the spread between in-place and advertised rents supported a mark-to-market story buyers could underwrite through renewal growth. Yardi's September data suggests that spread is thinning in the markets where supply ran hardest, shifting the underwriting case toward occupancy and absorption rather than renewal increases.

Yardi's summary: improving market breadth, slowing supply growth and resilient occupancy suggest multifamily is entering the fourth quarter on firmer footing.