Rent Costs Rising Faster in Suburbs Than Urban Cores

Suburban rents are growing faster than their urban counterparts, with a gap of as much as 21 percent in some cases. As Will Parker explains in The Wall Street Journal, “Rents in suburbs had climbed 26% through this past July since March 2020, 8 percentage points higher than the gain in urban cores, according to a report from rentals website Apartment List.”

The study found that “Suburban rent growth was greater than its urban counterpart in 28 of the 33 metro areas studied,” signaling a reversal of historic housing cost trends. In Portland, Oregon, suburban rents went up by 23 percent between 2020 and 2022 while rents in the city’s core only grew by 2 percent. The few exceptions to this pattern include New York City and Tampa, where urban core rent growth still outpaces suburban housing costs.

Parker adds, “Suburbs nationwide gained population last year, often at the expense of core counties in large metro areas, which collectively lost more than 800,000 movers, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis of U.S. census data.”