National apartment rents rose for a fifth straight month in July, with average advertised rent climbing $4, or 0.2%, from June to $1,771, according to Yardi Matrix’s July 2026 national multifamily report, published Aug. 3. The data firm called it the largest July increase since 2015 outside the exceptional post-pandemic boom years. Rents were also up 0.2% year over year, and have risen $22, or 1.3%, so far in 2026 — a slight improvement over the same period in 2025, though Yardi says the pace still points to limited pricing power for landlords.
The firm’s headline finding is regional: rent growth in Sun Belt and Mountain West markets, where a multi-year construction boom has weighed on pricing since 2024, is showing early signs of turning up. “While it is too early to declare a turning point, the recent improvement offers hope that markets hit hardest by the development boom are beginning to recover,” Yardi Matrix said in the report.
Where rents are rising, and where they’re not
Gateway and Midwest markets posted the strongest annual rent growth in July, led by San Francisco at 5.3%, New York City at 5.2%, the Kansas City metro at 3.1%, Chicago at 2.7% and the Twin Cities at 2.4%. Rent growth remained negative in several high-supply Sun Belt metros, though the declines were narrower than in prior months: Austin, Texas, posted the steepest year-over-year drop at 3.7%, followed by Denver at 2.7%, Phoenix at 2.1%, Tampa, Fla., at 2% and Houston at 1.9%.
National occupancy fell to 94.1% in June, down 60 basis points from a year earlier. San Francisco was the only major market to post a year-over-year occupancy gain, up 0.3 points, which Yardi attributed to demand tied to artificial-intelligence-related job growth. Every other major market posted a decline, with the steepest drops in Tampa (down 1.4 points) and Washington, D.C. (down 1 point). On an absolute basis, Houston, Austin, Dallas, Las Vegas and Atlanta continued to post the lowest occupancy rates among major markets.
The single-family build-to-rent segment posted a record high, with rents rising $5 in July to an all-time high of $2,240, up 0.3% year over year. Growth was strongest in Midwest metros including Indianapolis, Chicago, Cleveland-Akron and Kansas City, while all four major Texas build-to-rent markets — San Antonio, Austin, Dallas and Houston — posted annual declines. Yardi noted a nearly 9.5-percentage-point spread between top-performing Indianapolis and weakest-performing San Antonio, which it called evidence of “growing regional divergence” driven by heavy Texas deliveries across all rental property types.
What it means
Yardi’s data show demand holding up even as elevated new supply keeps a lid on national rent growth, with landlords still leaning on concessions to protect occupancy rather than push rents. The firm’s own outlook is “cautiously positive”: it flagged stubborn inflation, high borrowing costs and renewed Middle East conflict — which it said have pushed gasoline prices higher and pushed the 10-year Treasury yield to an 18-month high — as risks that could delay the Sun Belt recovery and mute rent growth further. Yardi also pointed to the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act, signed into law in July, as a longer-term tailwind for rental construction, though it cautioned the impact “will take years to be felt” given planning timelines and persistently high construction costs.
The report’s regional recovery signal comes even as multifamily developer sentiment has softened: a separate NAHB survey found builder confidence weakened in the second quarter, and NAHB has also found that large apartment buildings captured the majority of 2025 completions — the supply wave now working its way through Sun Belt occupancy numbers. What to watch: whether the modest Sun Belt improvement holds through the traditionally slower fall leasing season, and whether slowing apartment completions accelerate the recovery Yardi says is not yet confirmed.
