Austin leads Realtor.com's February 2026 rent relief rankings with 18.2% drop since 2022

A four-year low in U.S. rents is reshaping the market. Realtor.com data shows the 10 U.S. markets where relief runs deepest

Sergio Flores / Bloomberg via Getty Images

For the first time in years, renting in America is getting cheaper.

The pandemic housing boom was brutal. Between 2020 and 2022, asking rents across the U.S. surged as remote workers flooded new markets and landlords capitalized on tight supply. By the summer of 2022, the national median asking rent had climbed high enough to price out a generation of renters.

The reversal has been slower, quieter, and, depending on where you live, either a genuine reprieve or a modest consolation. Nationally, rents have now fallen for 30 consecutive months on a year-over-year basis, a streak that reflects something more durable than seasonal softness. The national median asking rent across the 50 largest metros stood at $1,667 in February 2026 — still $207 above pre-pandemic levels but $90 below the 2022 peak and at its lowest point in four years.

The driver, in many of the hardest-hit markets, is supply. A construction boom in multifamily housing, particularly across Sun Belt cities, flooded the rental market with new inventory just as pandemic-era demand began to cool. Landlords are now competing for tenants rather than the other way around.

Not every market has followed the same script. Some cities remain stubbornly close to their all-time highs, with vacancy rates tightening and year-over-year rents climbing again. Others have seen such steep and sustained declines that........

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