Rents are continuing to come down—although they remain well above their pre-pandemic levels in a painful reality for tenants.

Nationally, the median asking rent was $1,722 in March in the 50 largest U.S. metros, according to the latest Realtor.com® rent report. That was down 0.3%, or $5, from one year ago, and was just 2%, or $36, less than the all-time high reached in August 2022.

“It’s not bad news for renters, but it’s also not exciting news,” says Realtor.com economist Jiayi Xu. “Rent is declining, so it’s an improvement. But it’s very baby steps.”

The report looked at rents for studios and one-bedroom and two-bedroom apartments, condos, townhomes, and single-family homes in the 50 largest metropolitan areas. (Metros include the main city and surrounding towns, suburbs, and smaller urban areas.)

However, rents were up $14 from February. Prices typically rise seasonally as the weather warms up.

And despite eight straight months of year-over-year declines, rents remain well above the levels seen before the COVID-19 pandemic. It’s a trend that continues to squeeze household budgets and has contributed significantly to inflation running hotter than the Federal Reserve’s 2% target.

In March, the U.S. median rent was still $313 higher than the same month in 2019, an increase of 22.2%.

Where are rents rising the fastest?

While rents fell nationally, they were still rising in certain parts of the country.

Last month, rents rose 0.4% on the year in the West. It marked the region’s first annual rent increase after 13 months in a row of declines.

Prices were up 2.9% in San Diego and 1.6% in Los Angeles in March. They were among the Western metros that saw annual rental growth in March, while prices dipped 3.2% in Phoenix and 1.9% in Denver.

Rents also continued to rise annually in most major Northeast metros. High-priced markets such as New York City and Boston continued to see rapid rent increases at 3.8% and 3.3% respectively. Meanwhile, Philadelphia posted a modest annual decline of 0.6%.

In the Midwest, median rents were flat from one year ago. Median asking rents declined 1.5% in the South, where a construction boom has helped boost the supply of rental units.

Southern cities with the biggest annual declines in rent included Austin, TX (-4.7%), Memphis, TN (-4.4%), and Atlanta (-3.7%).

“We’re seeing a higher number of new multifamily completions in the South region,” says Xu. “In the Northeast, where we don’t have a lot of land, there’s very limited construction, so the rent is still increasing.”

Which units experienced the largest rent declines?

Last month, asking rents for all sizes of units dropped on an annual basis. However, studios posted the fastest decline.

Median rents for studios were $1,435 for March, down 1.4% on the year. It marked the seventh consecutive month of annual declines for studio rents, which are now down by 3.7%, or $55, from their October 2022 peak. Nevertheless, the median asking rent for studios was still up 17.6%, or $215, from five years ago.

Two-bedroom rents dropped 0.5% on the year, to $1,435, marking the eighth consecutive month of annual declines. The March decline for two-bedrooms was a slowdown from the 0.8% annual decline in February.

The rent for one-bedroom units dipped a modest 0.1% in March from a year ago, to $1,602. That was $31 lower than the peak observed last August, but still up $290, or 22.1%, from March 2019.

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