In Nashville, Tennessee, landlords are competing aggressively for tenants, with some property managers offering up to three and a half months of free rent to attract new residents.
Mason Comans, an apartment hunter in Nashville, received unsolicited text messages from property managers offering move-in incentives, a sign of just how competitive the rental market has become in Sun Belt cities.
Zillow senior economist Kara Ng has been unambiguous in her assessment of the current environment, declaring: “Renters, this is your year.”
The typical asking rent nationally rose just 1.9% year over year in April, according to Zillow, well below the 4.2% rise in consumer prices recorded in May’s broader inflation report.
Figures from Realtor.com show rent has actually declined 1.5% year over year, while a record 39.8% of rentals listed on Zillow offered move-in incentives in April, ranging from waived fees to multiple months of free rent.
Ng noted that rent is now providing financial relief for families squeezed by rising costs elsewhere, saying: “Rent is the place giving you that breathing room.”
The driver behind softening rents is straightforward: the United States built approximately 600,000 apartment units in 2024, the highest annual total in 38 years, pushing the rental vacancy rate to 7.3% at the start of the year, its highest level in 12 years.
That construction boom was heavily concentrated in Sun Belt cities such as Nashville, Phoenix, and Austin, Texas, creating an oversupply that has forced landlords to offer perks to fill their buildings.
Ng described the dynamic plainly: “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.”
However, the picture looks very different in cities like Chicago, where tight supply has pushed rents up 5.4% year over year in April, one of the largest increases recorded in any major American city.
Chicago renter Chloe Troub rejected the idea that conditions favor renters in her city, saying: “Hell, no. I find that to be really insulting, just given the cost, the sheer cost, of putting a roof over your head right now.”
Troub, who currently pays $1,600 a month for a one-bedroom apartment she describes as a steal, found that upgrading to a larger space would cost at least $2,000, an increase that would consume her boyfriend’s most recent pay raise entirely.
When she told the person subletting the apartment that the price was beyond her budget, he was unfazed, telling her he had 12 other showings lined up and describing the market as “a rat race out there.”
Renters who do find favorable deals in supply-heavy markets should also be cautious about reading too much into move-in incentives, according to Michelle Becker, a broker with Adaro Realty in Nashville, who warned: “As soon as they get you locked in, you’re still getting rent increases every year.”
Comans has managed to keep capturing new deals by moving frequently, relocating four times in five years to secure fresh incentives, with his current apartment offering pool access and two and a half months of free rent.
He acknowledged that maintaining those savings would require continued mobility, noting that if he wanted more free rent the following year, “then I would have to move to do that.”
Despite all the talk of a renter’s market, the average U.S. rent remains 36.9% higher than it was at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to Zillow, a stark reminder that affordability challenges have not disappeared.
Comans himself pays $1,800 a month, more than he once did, and was candid about the reality of the situation: “It is a lot of money. It’s not cheap at all.”
