10 major US cities where rent is affordable and falling fast as national apartment prices reach record highs

• Rent is heading higher across much of the US, even though apartment supply is up.
• College towns are seeing some of the largest year-over-year jumps as students move in.
• Here are 10 cities where rent is cheaper than the national median and falling quickly.

A key factor in the US rental market is still heading in tenants' direction — but rent itself isn't.

The median monthly cost of staying in an apartment in large US cities hit an all-time high in August, new research from real-estate site Zumper shows. A one-bedroom setup cost $1,534 while two-bedroom fixtures went for $1,915, which are both up by a few dollars from July's rates.

Surprisingly, tenants aren't pushing back much against this rent growth, as rental vacancy rates have remained flat in the first half of the year at around 6.6%, according to Zumper. That may be because elevated mortgage rates are still deterring homebuyers, even though they've fallen.

"In an era where the amount of new supply is shattering records, it's remarkable to see vacancy rates holding steady this year," said Zumper CEO Anthemos Georgiades in a statement for the report. "Strong renter retention alongside our growing national rent index underscores the robust demand present in the US market."

Back-to-school season sends rent soaring in certain cities

Apartment prices surged most this month in college towns like Syracuse, New York; New Haven, Connecticut; Lexington, Kentucky; Madison, Wisconsin; and Lincoln, Nebraska. Those towns, all of which were in the top 10 of year-over-year rent growth in August, are home to Syracuse University, Yale University, the University of Kentucky, the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, respectively.

"College towns tend to demonstrate stronger apartment market performance when compared to the national average since they generally have higher occupancy rates and greater overall stability in their rental markets," Zumper researchers wrote in the report. "As August marks this year's back-to-school season, the demand in these areas are likely reaching their peaks as well."

At first blush, it makes sense that students rushing back to campus would cause demand to spike. However, that was true last year and every year before, outside the pandemic, so that dynamic alone shouldn't cause massive year-over-year price growth.

The best explanation is that apartment supply remains capped in those markets, Zumper noted. New units are going up quickly across the country, but not always where they're needed most.

10 cities where rent is cheap and falling

Although apartment prices are broadly up, 40 of the 100 largest metropolitan areas in the US saw rent growth fall in August compared to 2023. Of those, 28 also happen to have lower rents for one-bedroom apartments than the national median of $1,534.

To help renters save, Business Insider narrowed that list down even further to 10 cities where one-bedroom units are cheaper than the national median and rent is down at least 5% year over year. Three of the top four cities fitting that description are in North Carolina, while three others are in Texas.

Below are those 10 cities along with their year-over-year and month-over-month rent changes, median rent prices, the monthly savings vs national median, and the national rent rankings among the nation's 100 largest real-estate markets.