Apartment hunting this fall? Don’t sign a lease before asking for this

Rent has fallen for the 37th consecutive month, as more landlords offer concessions for renters The average rent is trending down across the country. According to a new report, rent has continued to fall for just over three years as of August 2026. The data comes from Realtor.com’s Monthly Rent Report, which found that the national median asking rent dropped 0.9% year-over-year across the 50 largest metro areas for an average of $1,699. That brings the average asking rent down 3.7%, or $65 less than where it sat in the summer of 2022. It’s not just the smallest spaces that saw a decline in rent, either. Studio rentals dropped by 1.2%, one-bedrooms went down 0.8%, and two-bedrooms fell by 0.9%. While rent is continuously falling across the board, the average asking rent remains higher than their pre-pandemic rates. Two-bedrooms remain the highest above their pre-pandemic rate, up 17.7% from August 2019, while one-bedroom rents are 14.4% higher, and studio rents are 13.1% higher. Overall, rent is still 15.4% higher than the August 2019 average. Regardless, as mortgage rates recently climbed to the highest level in a year, lower monthly payments are a helpful perk for renters. And it…