The 3% increase was the fastest such rise since 2016.
CoreLogic, Irvine, Calif., said rent prices in single-family rental properties increased 3% during 2019, the fastest such rise since 2016. Single-family rents increased at a 2.9 percent pace in December, the company’s Single-Family Rent Index said. CoreLogic Principal Economist Molly Boesel said she expects the sector’s growth trend to continue. “Employment growth is expected to remain strong in 2020,” she said. “This, coupled with rental vacancies reaching a 34-year low in the last quarter of 2019, could lead to continued rent increases in the near term.” Boesel noted low rental home inventory relative to demand is driving single-family rent price growth. Single-family rent prices have climbed since 2010, but year-over-year rent price increases have slowed since peaking at 4 percent in February 2016. December marked the sixty-eighth consecutive month in which low-end rentals propped up national SFR rent growth as newly formed households push up demand for entry-level properties, CoreLogic said. Rents in SFR properties with rent prices below 75 percent of the regional median increased 3.4 percent year-over-year in December while higher-end assets with rent prices exceeding 125 percent of a region’s median rent increased just 2.5 percent.
Source: The Mortgage Bankers Association