U.S. National Multifamily Report August 2026: Rent Growth Hits 12-Month High

According to YardiMatrix survey covering 140 U.S. metro markets, advertised multifamily asking rents registered the strongest yearoveryear gain in nearly oneyear for August 2026. Newsupply pipeline is tapering off nationwide; however performance varies sharply by city and asset class, with SunBelt markets still weighed down by large volumes of newlybuilt leaseup inventory.

Core Rent & Occupancy Metrics

 National average advertised multifamily rent rose $2 monthovermonth to $1,773 per month, up 0.4 % yearonyear, 20 basispoints higher than 2025 corresponding period.

 National multifamily occupancy stood at 94.2 % in July, down 0.5 % yearoveryear.

 Single-family build-to-rent (SFBTR) asking rents held at record-high $2,246 per month, +0.5 % year-on-year with no monthly change.

Metro-level Market Divergence

Gateway and Midwestern metros outperformed, yet momentum has begun cooling:

✅ Strong YoY rentgrowth markets: San Francisco 6.1 %, New York 5.3 %, Kansas City 3.0 %, Chicago 2.6 %, Twin Cities 2.4 %. Driven by tech and AIdriven job gains amid constrained supply, San Francisco posted 0.5 % monthly rent uplift, jointhighest together with Baltimore.

☀️ Highsupply SunBelt metros recorded moderating negative rent declines: Austin 2.8 %, Denver 2.0 %, Tampa 1.8 %. Market balance is gradually improving as completions slow and futureproject pipeline shrinks.

Market note: August marked one of the better August readings in recent years, though rent gains remain below prepandemic benchmarks. Nearly half of YardiMatrix’s top30 markets registered flat or negative rent movement; landlords still have limited pricing power.

SupplySide Dynamics

Multifamily housing starts and deliveries have fallen by roughly onethird versus the 20232024 cyclical peak, creating market expectations for future rent support.  1.2 million newbuild apartments were in the leaseup phase nationwide in August, down from 1.4 million peak in 2025, yet still double the 10year average inventory.  Large volumes of units still working through leaseup are the main headwind restraining rent recovery across SunBelt geographies.

SingleFamily BuildtoRent Performance

SFBTR results are highly dispersed, with more than 10 percentagepoint gap between best and worstperforming cities:

 Miami leads with +5.4 % yearonyear rent growth;

 San Antonio suffers 5.5 % YoY rent compression caused by oversupply.

Renter-by-Necessity assets outperformed lifestyle-oriented properties by a spread of 170 basis points. Even though high mortgage rates should push more households toward rental housing, SF-BTR occupancy edged down 20 basis points year-over-year to 94.8 % in July.

Summary & Outlook

Supply contraction is unfolding and should support rent performance over the medium-term. Nevertheless, large existing leaseup inventories prevent broad-based rent rallies in short-run. Gateway cities and job-rich Midwestern metros show superior resilience; Sun-Belt recovery speed depends on absorption of new deliveries. Necessity-focused rental assets are more defensive than premium lifestyle-grade stock.