Tracking rental trends in a depressed housing market

However, the trend has now started to reverse due to worsening economic data and the fact that the rental market is limited in the suburbs and has been unable to keep up with demand.  

“Suburbs are, with some exception, typically not places where the rental market can grow nearly as quickly,” Warnock added.

The report noted that conditions quickly changed last year as the large cities where rents had been falling experienced sharp rebounds, leading to a temporary narrowing of the rent growth gap between core cities and suburbs early in 2021.

But suburban rent growth then began to outpace core city rent growth again, even as prices skyrocketed in both sets of cities, the report revealed, driven by tight supply colliding with a surge in demand.

The study said rent growth had now “cooled somewhat”, while the gap between core cities and suburbs has continued to gradually widen.