Annual single family rent strengthens for fourth consecutive month

U.S. single-family rent prices increased 1.5% year-over-year in June 2026.

· Rent is increasing at a typical seasonal pattern after a year of below-trend growth.

· Chicago-Naperville-Schaumburg, IL had the highest year-over-year rent increase at 5%.

· Los Angeles saw the largest slowdown in single-family rent growth for the fourth consecutive month.

IRVINE, Calif., August 20, 2026 - Cotality, a leading global property information, analytics, and data-enabled solutions provider, released its latest Single-Family Rent Index (SFRI) for June 2026, which tracks single-family rent price changes nationally. Single-family rent prices in June 2026 increased by 1.5% year-over-year, which is a decrease from last year's annual increase of 2.5%. However, monthly rent growth has been increasing at a typical seasonal pattern for most of 2026 after a year of below-trend growth.

"National single-family rent growth increased to 1.5% in June, marking the fourth consecutive month of stronger annual gains and the highest growth rate since late 2025," said Molly Boesel, senior principal economist at Cotality. "While rents are rising a bit faster than they were earlier this year, the market remains much different from the rapid growth environment seen in recent years. Pricing performance continues to vary across both regions and price tiers, with higher-end rentals posting stronger gains than lower-end properties. At the local level, Midwestern markets continue to lead rent price growth, while some Sun Belt markets remain comparatively soft. Overall, June's results point to a market that is slowly increasing rather than broadly accelerating."

The disparities between high-end and low-end price increases continued in June 2026, high-end prices continued to show strong growth, increasing by 2.4% while low-end prices were much weaker, increasing by just 0.4% for the second month in a row. However, growth in both tiers decreased was lower than a year earlier. Rent growth for detached rentals increased by 1.4% in June 2026, while it increased 1.6% for attached rentals.

Rent growth across the nation continues to be the strongest in the Midwest, where Chicago led price growth at 5.0%, followed by Detroit (3.4%), Philadelphia (3.2%), New York (2.8%), and Atlanta (1.2%). Rent price growth remains slowest in the Southern U.S. Houston, TX posted negative price growth for the fifth consecutive month at -0.2%, followed by Dallas, TX which posted 0.2% growth. Los Angeles saw the largest slowdown in year-over-year growth for the fourth consecutive month, dropping from 4.7% to 0.6%.

The next Cotality Single-Family Rent Index will be released on September 17, 2026, featuring data for July 2026. For ongoing housing trends and data, visit the Cotality Insights blog: www.cotality.com/insights.

Methodology

The Cotality Single-Family Rent Index (SFRI) applies a repeat pairing methodology to single-family rental listing data in the Multiple Listing Service. The rental listings used to calculate the index include both attached and detached single-family homes, as well as condominiums. This report shows trends for the U.S. and the 10 largest U.S. metropolitan areas. In addition to these 10metros, the Cotality SFRI is available for close to 100 metropolitan areas -including approximately 50 metros with four value tiers - and a national composite index. The indices are fully revised with each release to signal turning points sooner.

The Cotality Single-Family Rent Index analyzes data across four price tiers: Lower-priced, which represent rentals with prices 75% or below the regional median; lower-middle, 75% to 100% of the regional median; higher-middle, 100%-125% of the regional median; and higher-priced, 125% or more above the regional median.

Median rent price data is produced monthly by Cotality Rental Trends. Rental Trends is built on a database of more than 11 million rental properties (over 75% of all U.S. individually owned rental properties) and covers all 50 states and 17,500 ZIP codes.

About Cotality

Cotality accelerates data, insights, and workflows across the property ecosystem to enable industry professionals to surpass their ambitions and impact society. With billions of real-time data signals across the life cycle of a property, we unearth hidden risks and transformative opportunities for agents, lenders, carriers, and innovators. Get to know us at www.cotality.com.

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