Though Phoenix remains one of the cheaper places to live in the country, rents in the region continue to outpace national growth.
A new study from RentCafe stated rents rose 6.9 percent during the past 12 months, up from $933 to $997 on average per month for all apartment sizes. That’s the third fastest-growing rent prices in the U.S.
The Valley’s rent increases outpaced the national increase of 3 percent, but prices remain significantly lower than the national average apartment rent of $1,412, according to RentCafe’s monthly Apartment Market Report.
The biggest regional rent increase was in Peoria, which was one of the top overall sites for rent increases in the U.S. between September 2017 and September 2018. Rent in that city charged upward to $1,114 this year, a 9.5 percent increase.
“With an average rent at about the same (as Reno, Nevada), $900-level just three years ago, the strong and fast population growth experienced by pretty much the entire metro is now causing affordability issues,” the report said of Peoria.
These trends are part of a continued supply and demand change in the Phoenix market.
“The reality is the last several years, and what we’re expecting the next several years, is demand exceeding supply,” Shelton-Cook Real Estate Services Principal Tom Shelton told the Phoenix Business Journalin early September.
Shelton said the growing number of “renters by choice” altered the calculus in Phoenix. Those include millennials and empty-nesters.
Looking to the West Valley, Shelton said a focus on economic development west of Interstate 17 could be a factor in the fluctuating rent costs.
Data in the report came from Yardi Matrix, a business development and asset management tool, and RentCafe only analyzed cities with populations greater than 100,000 and with more than 2,900 apartment units available for rent.