Apartments.com Q3 RentPulse Report: Apartment Markets Tighten, But Renters Still Have Leverage

Today, Apartments.com, an industry-leading online marketplace of CoStar Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: CSGP), released its Q3 Apartments.com RentPulse Index, a quarterly measure designed to track the financial and behavioral health of renters across the United States. The Q3 findings point to an unusual moment in the U.S. rental market as apartments are getting harder to find, but renters still have meaningful bargaining power.

The national vacancy rate fell to 7.8%, down 0.5 percentage points from a year ago and its lowest level since late 2023, as the historic wave of apartment construction begins to recede. Yet landlords are still competing for renters, with the national concession rate rising to 4.2%, 0.6 percentage points higher than last year.

Beneath those national numbers, rental markets are moving in increasingly different directions. In parts of the Upper Midwest, limited construction and strengthening demand are pushing rents higher as recently delivered apartments are absorbed. In Las Vegas, Salt Lake City and Southwest Florida, excess supply continues to push rents lower and give renters greater leverage. Texas sits somewhere in between, with significant discounts still available even as leasing picks up and vacancies begin to decline.

Where Rents Are Rising: Upper Midwest Gains Momentum

The Upper Midwest is emerging as one of the clearest pockets of rent growth in Q3, as relatively limited construction and increased leasing activity shift the balance toward landlords. Across the Midwest, rents are now 2.3% higher than a year ago.

Several markets that spent the past few years absorbing new apartments are now seeing availability decline and rents rise:

• Grand Forks: +3.2% year over year

• Milwaukee: +2.7%

• Grand Rapids: +2.3%

• Des Moines: +1.7%

• Detroit: +1.6%

• St. Paul: +1.6%

• Minneapolis: +1.1%

Where Rents Are Falling: Supply-Heavy Markets Still Favor Renters

The picture looks very different in markets still working through the apartment construction boom. Three markets stand out:

• Fort Myers: Rents are down 3.3% year over year. Southwest Florida remains heavily oversupplied, although a cooling construction pipeline could give demand time to catch up.

• Las Vegas: Rents are down 1.8% to $1,251 per month as new apartments continue to enter an already oversupplied market. Renters are using concessions to trade up into newer properties, intensifying competition for renters among existing communities.

• Salt Lake City: Rents are down 1.1%, while vacancy remains elevated at 9.2% and concessions stand at 7.6% as the market continues to absorb its 2023–2025 supply wave

Where Renters Are Still Finding Significant Discounts

Even as vacancy tightens nationally, renters continue to find substantial discounts from advertised rents. The national concession rate (the difference between advertised rent and what renters actually pay after specials are applied) rose to 4.2%, 0.6 percentage points higher than last year.

The markets offering the deepest discounts are:

• Naples, FL: 12.9%

• Fort Myers, FL: 11.5%

• Sarasota, FL: 10.5%

• Austin, TX: 9.9%

• Savannah, GA: 9.6%

Austin Shows How Quickly the Renter’s Market Could Change

Few markets capture the current transition better than Austin, where renters are benefiting from an unusual combination of affordability and a 9.9% concession rate, the fourth-highest in the country. The average Austin renter has a 20.8% rent-to-income ratio, tying Colorado Springs for the lowest among major markets tracked by RentPulse.

But the forces that created those conditions are beginning to change. After several years of high vacancy, falling rents and aggressive concessions across Texas, leasing activity is picking up and vacancy is declining in Austin, San Antonio and Dallas-Fort Worth, while Houston is beginning to stabilize. Rent declines are becoming more gradual as demand catches up with supply.

Rent Burden Continues Climbing

RentPulse findings indicate that while the national rent-to-income ratio remains relatively balanced at 23.4%, renters in many major coastal markets continue to spend far beyond the commonly recommended 30% threshold. In Manhattan, for example, the average one-bedroom rent is equivalent to 71.1% of median household income, while renters in Queens and Brooklyn face ratios of 61.2% and 52.7%, respectively.

New York continues to dominate the least affordable major rental markets, while other high-cost markets including Miami, Boston and Jersey City also rank among the most rent-burdened. By contrast, cities including Colorado Springs, Austin and Raleigh offer considerably more affordable options, with rent-to-income ratios near or below 22%. The divide underscores how strongly location can determine whether renters are financially stretched or have greater flexibility in their housing budgets.

The full report is available at Apartments.com/blog/rentpulse-index.

About CoStar Group

CoStar Group (NASDAQ: CSGP) is a leading global provider of online real estate marketplaces, information, analytics, and digital twins in the property markets. Founded in 1986, CoStar Group is dedicated to digitizing the world’s real estate, empowering all people to discover properties, insights, and connections that improve their businesses and lives.

CoStar Group’s major brands include CoStar, a leading global provider of commercial real estate data, analytics, and news; LoopNet, the most trafficked commercial real estate marketplace; Apartments.com, the leading platform for apartment rentals; Homes.com, the fastest-growing residential real estate marketplace; and Domain, one of Australia’s leading property marketplaces.

CoStar Group’s industry-leading brands also include Matterport, a leading spatial data company whose platform turns buildings into data to make every space more valuable and accessible; STR, a global leader in hospitality data and benchmarking; Zonda, a leading provider of data, analytics, software, and marketplace solutions for the residential construction industry; Ten-X, an online platform for commercial real estate auctions and negotiated bids; and OnTheMarket, a leading residential property portal in the United Kingdom.

CoStar Group’s websites attracted 121 million average monthly unique visitors in the third quarter of 2026, serving clients around the world. Headquartered in Arlington, Virginia, CoStar Group is committed to transforming the real estate industry through innovative technology and comprehensive market intelligence. From time to time, we plan to utilize our corporate website as a channel of distribution for material company information. For more information, visit CoStarGroup.com.

Forward-Looking Statements

This news release includes “forward-looking statements,” including, without limitation, statements regarding CoStar Group’s expectations or beliefs regarding the future. These statements are based upon current beliefs and are subject to many risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from these statements. The following factors, among others, could cause or contribute to such differences: the risk that the trends represented or implied by the RentPulse Index do not continue or produce the results suggested by such trends, including the risk that apartment supply, demand, vacancy rates, rent growth and concessions do not develop as expected. More information about potential factors that could cause results to differ materially from those anticipated in the forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, those stated in CoStar Group’s filings from time to time with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including in CoStar’s Annual Reports on Form 10-K and CoStar Group’s Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, including in the “Risk Factors” sections of those filings, as well as CoStar Group’s other filings with the SEC available at the SEC’s website. All forward-looking statements are based on information available to CoStar Group on the date hereof, and CoStar Group assumes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20261028484177/en/

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