In December, the U.S. median rental price grew 19.3% year-over-year to $1,781, which was relatively flat from last month’s level .
The median studio rental price continued to accelerate in December, rising 18.6% over the same month in 2020 to a two-year high of $1,462. Common to big cities that saw an exodus of renters earlier in the pandemic, studio rents declined at the beginning of 2021. However, studio rents began to recover in the second half of the year as downtown offices and attractions began to reopen, and ended 2021 at an average annual growth rate of 6.1% . . The year’s fastest-growing rental markets were all outside of big tech cities, with the top 10 led by the relatively affordable Los Angeles alternative of Riverside, California.