Annual Single-Family Rent growth remains below trend while spring leasing season drives stronger gains

The three-month change in rent growth was stronger than normal, but it is being held back by weak prices compared to 2025.

· U.S. single-family rent prices increased 1.3% year over year in May 2026.

· Florida and parts of Texas continue to soften, while Midwest and Northeast markets remain the strongest performers.

· Los Angeles saw the largest slowdown in rent price growth for the third month.

IRVINE, Calif., July 16, 2026 - Cotality, a leading global property information, analytics, and data-enabled solutions provider, released its latest Single-Family Rent Index (SFRI) for May 2026.It analyzes single-family rent price changes nationally and across major metropolitan areas. Single-family rent prices in May 2026 increased by 1.3% year over year, a decline year-over-year when rent prices increased by 2.6% in May 2025.

Spring rent growth strengthened in 2026, with rents increasing 2.2% between February and May. That compares with gains of 1.9% during the same period in 2025 and 1.4% in 2024.

"The May data tells two different stories. While annual single-family rent growth remained subdued at 1.3%, rents increased 2.2% between February and May, a stronger-than-typical spring gain that signals improving momentum," said Molly Boesel, senior principal economist at Cotality. "When we look beneath the national average, the market is becoming increasingly fragmented. Florida accounted for more than half of the annual declines among the largest metros, while rent growth in parts of the Midwest and Northeast remained several times the national rate. Though some markets that continue to post annual declines recorded positive spring gains, suggesting local conditions are beginning to shift despite still-soft year-over-year trends."

Rent for high-end properties increased 2.2% year over year in May 2026, a drop from the 3.1% gain recorded last year. Meanwhile, we continued to see low-end property prices accelerating much more slowly. Low-end rents increased by only 0.4% year over year, a drop from a 1.6% gain in May 2025, and a 1.8 percentage point gap from high-end prices, suggesting continued affordability pressures. Rent growth for detached rentals increased by 1.1% in May 2026, while it increased 1.4% for attached rentals.

Rent growth remains strongest in the Midwest and Northeast. Chicago (4.8%), Detroit (3.5%), Philadelphia (2.9%), and New York (2.8%) saw the highest year-over-year gains.

Rent price growth remained weakest in parts of Texas and Florida. Among the 10 largest metros, Houston (-0.5%) and Dallas (-0.2%) posted annual rent declines in May. Looking across the 50 largest U.S. metros, 13 recorded annual declines, including seven in Florida. Meanwhile, 42 metros saw slower annual rent growth than a year earlier. Los Angeles recorded the largest year-over-year slowdown for the second consecutive month, with rent growth falling from 5.3% in May 2025 to 0.0% in May 2026.

The next Cotality Single-Family Rent Index will be released on August20, featuring data for June 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 10 metros, 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 https://www.cotality.com.  

Media Contact

Charity Head 

Cotality 

[email protected]

‍