Rent prices across the country are stabilizing after rising almost 20 percent over the last two years. Following nine months of slowing rent growth, prices in May finally turned negative for the first time since the spring of 2020. Driving this trend is the Mountain West, where year-over-year rent prices have fallen in most states across the region, including Idaho, Nevada, Arizona and to a lesser extent, Utah.
Rents in these locales rose quickly early in the pandemic. While many larger metros on the West Coast and in the Northeast were experiencing rent declines, areas like Boise, ID, were experiencing historic rent hikes fueled by inbound migration and a runaway housing market. By the fall of 2021, many of these markets had reached unsustainable growth and prices began to moderate.
Many of these locales have registered negative rent growth for months. In the case of Boise, yearly rents have declined by double digits in six of the last nine months as prices have returned to levels last seen in the spring of 2021.
Mountain West states where rents are dropping
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the Mountain West is a subdivision of the geographic region of the West. It contains eight states: Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, Colorado, Nevada, Wyoming, Montana and Idaho.
Nevada
Renters across Nevada saved the most money on their rent bills in May 2023, when prices fell 7.46 percent from May 2022. The median rent price in Nevada dropped to $1,534.61 in May, the lowest price so far this year.
Rent prices have fallen throughout 2023. Year-over-year (YoY) rent prices in Nevada decreased by 4.78 percent in April, 4.89 percent in March, 1.88 percent in February and 2.05 percent in January. Month-over-month rent prices have also fallen throughout 2023.
Residents of Las Vegas–Henderson–Paradise paid more at $1,638.75 a month for rent in May. But that price is down 10.57 percent from the previous year.
That’s the lowest price so far in 2023, although rents declined in both April (-7.13 percent) and March (2.41 percent) as well. Prices in Nevada’s largest metro increased slightly in January and February after decreasing at the end of 2022.
Idaho
Rent prices in Idaho fell to a 2023 low in May 2023 as well, reaching a median price of $1615.33 a month. That reflects a year-over-year price drop of 6.90 percent.
Idaho also saw rents fall every month so far this year. Rents were down 5.37 percent in April, 3.09 percent in March, 2.30 percent in February and 5.79 percent in January.
Year-over-year rent prices have been falling in Idaho since August 2022. Before that, YoY rent grew between 0.49 percent and 29.28 percent. Most monthly increases during this period were in the double digits.
Renters in Idaho’s largest community, Boise, saw their rent prices fall 12.20 percent between May 2022 and May 2023. That’s the largest price drop in May. But it’s consistent with the metro’s double-digit price decreases in April (-11.16 percent), March (-12.11 percent) and January (-10.94 percent). Renters also saved 4.40 percent in February.
These 2023 savings bring renters some relief after a long stretch of spiking rent prices. The largest 2022 YoY rent price increase in Boise was 25.57 percent, recorded in October 2022. But that double-digit increase looks quite modest when compared to year-over-year price spikes of 74.69 percent and 48.19 percent in 2021.
Arizona
Rent prices are down in Arizona, falling 3.57 percent year-over-year. That’s a bit more modest than the 4.30 percent decrease recorded in April and the 4.20 percent rent price drop in February. Rent prices fell just 0.42 percent in March and 2.64 in January.
Throughout most of 2022, prices in Arizona rose between 0.78 percent and 27.45 percent, with double-digit price growth between January and August 2022.
The average rent price in Phoenix–Mesa–Chandler decreased 6.46 percent year-over-year in May 2023. Renters in Arizona’s largest metropolitan area also saw their rent prices fall earlier in 2023, although the savings were more varied. Rents dropped 9.63 percent in April, 2.06 percent in March, 4 percent in February and 6.73 percent in January.
This downward price slide started in December 2022. Phoenix showed steady, mostly single-digit, year-over-year rent growth throughout most of 2022. But that’s on top of skyrocketing rent prices in 2021, including a 36 percent rent price hike in May and June of that year.
Utah
Utah renters saved 1.41 percent on their rent bills in May. But unlike the other states detailed so far, rent prices in Utah rose between January 2023 through April 2023.
The largest rent price increase of 2023 (6.19 percent) was recorded in January. But that increase pales in comparison to Utah’s 2022 numbers when YoY rent prices soared by double digits every month. Price changes bounced between a low of 12.14 percent in December 2022 and a high of 23.32 percent in February 2022.
Much of the state’s rent price growth is fueled by rising rental rates in its largest metro, Salt Lake City, where 2022 rent prices soared over the previous year’s rates for 12 months in a row. The largest increase was a 29.77 percent price hike in December 2022.
Prices dropping in areas adjacent to the Mountain West
Washington and Oregon are western states outside the Mountain West. But rent price drops in key metros in eastern Washington and Oregon also helped push median rent prices lower this spring.
Washington
Year-over-year rent prices in the state of Washington fell 5.37 percent in May. Prices also ticked downwards in every other month of 2023. The smallest decrease was -0.12 percent in January.
That’s a stark contrast to previous years, when the YoY rent price increases topped 30 percent from October 2021 through May 2022 in seven out of eight months. Before this year, YoY rents hadn’t decreased in Washington since July 2021.
Falling prices in two key eastern metros helped drive Washington rents down in 2023. Renters in Spokane saved money year over year when their rents dropped 8.10 percent in May, 11.47 percent in April, 1.13 percent in March and 4.20 percent in February.
Residents of Kennewick–Richland also saved money on their rent bills in 2023. Their rent prices fell 6.60 percent year over year in May. That’s comparable to a 6.93 percent drop in April. But renters saved more in February and March, when rent prices fell 10.89 percent and when they fell 9.63 percent, respectively.
Oregon
Oregon saw a much more modest rent price decline. Year-over-year rent prices dropped just -0.94 percent in May 2023 and 0.11 percent the month before.
The takeaway
Rents in the Mountain West are dropping driving aggregate rent savings in 2023. These year-over-year savings are helping the Mountain West return to some level of affordability and may provide a preview of what’s to come for the nation at large.
