Apartment rents in Allentown up 5% over last year

Rent growth in Allentown has slowed considerably, although it still stands at 5% year over year.

That’s according to the most recent report from Apartment List, which showed that median rents in Allentown are $1,101 for a one-bedroom apartment and $1,400 for a two-bedroom unit.

Year-over-year rent growth in Allentown is well under the state average of 8.3% and the national average of 10%.

“Allentown was once a city experiencing some of the fastest rent growth in the country,” Rob Warnock, senior research associate with Apartment List, wrote in an email.

“Last September, annual rent growth stood at 20%. But since then, the market has slowed dramatically and annual rent growth in Allentown has decelerated to just 5%. This is half the national average … and lower than other large Pennsylvania cities like Philadelphia (7.7%) and Pittsburgh (7.3%). This means prices are still rising, but they are rising at a much slower rate than they were a year ago, and they’re rising at a rate that looks much closer to pre-pandemic patterns.”

Allentown’s rents are easier to afford than those in many large U.S. cities. For example, metropolises like Miami, New York and Dallas have seen rents skyrocket 18.7%, 16.6% and 13.8%, respectively, over the past year.

San Francisco has a median rent of $2,680 for a two-bedroom unit, almost 1.5 times that of Allentown.

Nationally, the Apartment List rent index rose 0.5% in August, half the rate of growth in July.

“This year, rents have risen slightly faster than they did before the pandemic, but significantly slower than they did in 2021 when rent inflation was at its peak,” the report said. “So far in 2022, rents are up 7.2%, compared (with) 14.8% at this point in 2021. The year-over-year growth of 10% is down from a (peak) of nearly 18% at the beginning of the year.”

But this year’s pace remains faster than the years prior to 2021. For example, rent growth from January to August was 4.8% in 2018, 4.2% in 2019 and minus 0.2% in 2020.

Meanwhile, the nationwide vacancy rate for rentals is climbing. Apartment List’s most recent vacancy index is 5.1%, gradually easing from a low of 4.1% last fall.