Over the past two and a half years, the rental market has been on a rollercoaster ride, as the pandemic has shaken up the ways that we live and work. As remote has made proximity to the office less of a concern for housing choice, one result has been that the suburbs of large metros have been experiencing notably faster rent growth than the core cities that they surround.
In a new report, ApartmentList.com explore this shift in rental demand away from downtown and toward the suburbs. They found that, since March of 2020, rents have increased by an average 19.8% in the core cities of large metros, while the suburbs of these metros have seen rents spike by 27.2%.
A few key takeaways for the Charlotte region include:
-
In the first year of the pandemic, rents in the city of Charlotte rose by 0.5%, compared to an increase of 5.1% in the metro’s surrounding suburbs.
-
From the start of the pandemic to present, Charlotte rents are up by 27.9%, while the metro’s suburbs have seen rents rise by 33.2%.
-
Among the 39 metros that we analyzed, 33 have seen rent growth in the suburbs outpacing that of the core cities. On average, rent growth has been fastest in the suburbs that sit farthest from the urban core.
For a more in-depth analysis of these trends, check out the full report here.