The Indicator from Planet Money - We're in a renter's market (believe it or not)

Episode Date: July 7, 2026

Depends on where you live, but renters have a lot of power right now in the United States. What’s behind this trend and how might you be able to take advantage of the renters’ market at your next lease renewal. Fact checking by Sierra Juarez.Your Next Listen — Corporate landlords aren't the real villainConnect with The Indicator — Sign up for The Indicator’s brand new newsletter— Buy the Planet Money book— Find our socials, YouTube and more!— For sponsor-free episodes, subscribe to NPR+ See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.NPR Privacy Policy

NPR. If you are a long-time renter, you've had a rough go of it for a while. The typical asking rent has gone up about 37% since before the pandemic, according to Zillow. Which is why it surprised us when we were talking with Zillow's senior economist Kara Ing and she said this. Yeah, so it's 2026 and renters, this is your year. It's a renter's market right now. Now, renters, before you grab your sharp knives and your leases and six,

that that can't possibly be true. Whether or not you live in a renter's market depends on where you live. This is the indicator from Planet Money. I'm Waylon Wong and I'm here with MPR's personal finance reporter, Stephen Besaha. Thank you for having me back on the pod, Waylon. It is so fun to have you back, Stephen. We missed you. I miss being here too. And on today's show, we get to hear two vastly different renters experiences from Nashville to Chicago. learn what makes a difference between a renter's market and a renter's nightmare. You guessed it, location, location, location.

Before we zoom in on specific cities, if we look at the U.S. as a whole, it does look like a renter's market. Yeah, if you look at rent in May, it was up about 2% from a year earlier, according to Zillow. That's slower than the rate of inflation. And at the same time, wages grew faster than rent. A win-win. And realtor.com even shows rent falling nationally. And the reason for that comes down to economics 101, supply and demand.

The U.S. has recently gone through an apartment construction boom. In 2024, the U.S. built more than 600,000 units. That's the most in decades. That huge increase in supply has outpaced demand, at least nationally. Zillow economist Keri Ng says apartments are sitting empty. There's a lot of apartment buildings hitting the market all at once, and property managers are trying to fill it. and they're doing it with freebies. Freebies.

Landlords aren't just lowering rent. They're offering deals. Out of all the rentals listed on Zillow in April, almost half were offering some financial incentive to move in, a Zillow record. The incentive could be anything from a waived pet fee to a month or two of free rent. Free rent!

Renters tend to like the free month rent, and it doesn't hurt to ask, because right now, you guys have the power. So what does that? all this renter power look like? All sorts of apartments just texting me, well, how about this or how about this? Mason Comins was recently apartment shopping around Nashville. And apartments were texting him with deals.

So he used that renter power to negotiate. Well, this place is doing two months free and you're only doing one month free. And they're like, okay, well, we might be doing two months free. I even saw some places doing three months, three and a half months free. I'm sorry, three and a half months. That's a whole financial quarter. A whole quarter off of your rent. So these perks, they are especially common in sunboats cities like Nashville, Phoenix, and Austin,

where there's a lot of land to build on and fewer regulations to stop it. So more apartments getting built and more deals. Mason ended up going with the place that was offering two plus months a free rent. It's a brand new apartment complex complete with a pool, a gym, and a market. There's a little kiosk like you have in an airport and you go over, you scan your items. and then you check out. Not counting those free months off, the rent is $1,800 a month. What do you say to someone who's like, you're saying it's a renter's market, but man, that sounds like

a lot of money to me. I mean, it is a lot of money. It's not cheap at all. But when I'm looking at $1,800 for a one-bedroom versus, okay, I can drain all the money that I have for a down payment on a house and then still come out with a, you know, $3,000 mortgage. That's significantly a lot more of my paycheck going to a house. Yeah, Lendingtree found that U.S. homeowners generally pay each month about 37% more than renters.

And while homeownership is one of the main ways Americans build wealth, renters can use those savings to make investments and in some cases even be financially better off than homeowners. Of course, if you really do want to be a homeowner, then those same supply and demand forces that are making rent more affordable could do the same for the housing market. Yep, Congress, in fact, just passed a housing bill with a housing bill. overwhelming bipartisan support. One of the main ideas in it is to encourage more home building to boost supply and lower home prices, in part by reducing regulation around construction and offering financial carrots

to local communities that build more. So far, President Trump has refused to sign it. He's called it a yawn compared to his election security bill, the Save America Act, and he wants that passed first. But so long as he doesn't veto the housing bill, it should become law without his signature, in the next week. Now, when it comes to renter power, there are limits. For one, these financial perks are meant for new residents. They often are not offered if you want to renew your lease. If every year, I kind of want to get a couple months off free rent, then I would have to move to do that.

And he has moved. Over five years in Nashville, he has moved four times in large part to get those perks. Oh, no. That's too much moving for me. Well, that's the idea. I'd like if you, why offer these incentives we know people don't want to move. How much pizza has he offered? Free pizza has he offered to France to help him move. Probably covered by a few months of free rent. If you're listening to this and you're not in Nashville, you're probably a little miffed. So when you hear someone from Zillow say, right now it is a renter's market in the U.S.

What is your first reaction to that? Hell no. Sorry. I don't know if I can say that. The voice of indignant renters everywhere is. Chloe Trob. She rents a one-bedroom apartment in Chicago with her boyfriend Carson McDonald for $1,600 a month. And that is a deal. It's like a screaming deal. That's like a, that's like a steel in Chicago. What neighborhood does Chloe live in? She said Lincoln Park.

Okay, that is a steal. Good job, Chloe. Well, Chicago does have some of the fastest growing rent in the country, like five and a half percent year over year. So this is a big caveat. yacht regarding the renter's market. It depends on where you live. Sure, places like Nashville went on apartment construction sprees offering all these renter freebies. Carson and Chloe visited Nashville recently and saw all that extra supply. All these big new constructions with these banners that say two months free rent. Yeah, we just drove through it and saw that. Yeah, lots of building. If you frequent Nashville or if you have over the past 10 years, the skyline looks drastically different. But cities like Chicago, Los Angeles, and Philadelphia did not get that construction boom.

The Midwest and Northeast in general just saw way fewer new units compared to the South. It depends on where, but that can be because of lack of land or regulation getting in the way. Only about 20% of Chicago rentals on Zillow are offering those financial moving perks. There are just too many renters chasing not enough apartments. Supply and demand are reversed there. Like take when Chloe was checking out an apartment and told, the guy showing the place that the rent was too much for her. He goes, it's okay, like I'll fill it. I have 12 showings after you.

Like 12? 12 freaking showings? This guy's like subletting it too. Like, he goes, it's a rat race out there. And I go, exactly what I've been saying. Like, you know. And even if you have gotten a good deal on an apartment in the past few years, rent is still way up from where it was before the pandemic. We brought this point up with our renter's market economist, Karen in with Zillow. Yeah, no, that's very valid. You're exactly right. Rents went up, what, 37% since before the pandemic. I mean, that was a big shock. Remember what happened in the pandemic is prices if everything went up. But at least right now, the cost of rent has not gone up as fast as other expenses over this past year, like the cost of electricity, the cost to fill up your car.

Kara says, yes, in March, rents were still rising, but wages were rising even faster. And that translated into an additional $2,300 a year in people's pockets. That's not counting those free months of rent some renters are getting. And again, that's an average. It all depends on where you live and if you got that raise. No, I know with gas prices right now. Like, I don't know how far that will go. But it does mean that rent is the place giving you that breathing room.

As for renters who do not want to move and still want those incentives, Kara says talk with your landlord. Negotiation power is in your favor, at least in some parts of the U.S. Yeah, not what that guy Chloe was talking to who was like, it's a rat race out there. It's like, good luck. May the odds be ever in your favor. This episode was produced by Corey Bridges with engineering by Travis Hagan. It was fact-checked by Sierra Juarez.

Haking Cannon is our editor and The Indicator is a production of NPR.