Alexandria’s median apartment rent rose for the fourth consecutive month in April but stands 3% lower than at the same point in 2025, according to new data.
The median apartment rental rate was $2,224 for the month — $2,040 for one-bedroom units and $2,506 for two bedrooms — according to new data from Apartment List.
That is a modest increase from December, when the overall median city rent stood at $2,155, but remains below the all-time peak of $2,307 set in May 2025.
Alexandria’s median rental cost stood at $1,922 at the onset of Covid-19 in the spring of 2020. By January 2021, the median had declined to $1,746 before beginning a fast rebound that has largely followed traditional cyclical patterns — a hotter market in spring and summer with cooling at other times of year.
Alexandria’s market gyrations largely align with national conditions.
The median rental rate in April across the U.S. was $1,370 in the Apartment List report, down 1.7% year over year after increasing for three straight months following six months of declines.
“We are now entering the time of year when the bulk of moves take place, and as such, we’ll likely see continued price increases through the summer, in line with typical seasonal patterns,” Apartment List analysts said. “Prices generally soften as fewer renters move during the fall and winter, and then gradually begin to increase as we get closer to the peak moving summer season.”
Nationally, the four most expensive rental markets for April were in California: San Francisco ($3,324 median apartment rent), Irvine ($3,057), San Jose ($2,964) and Fremont ($2,847). Arlington ranked fifth, at $2,607.
On the other end of the spectrum, the lowest monthly rents were recorded in Toledo ($881), Wichita ($1,027), Tucson ($1,029), Cleveland ($1,034) and Detroit ($1,036).
In terms of year-over-year appreciation, Virginia Beach (+5.2%) topped the 100 urban areas, with Austin (-5.7%) at the bottom.
Since Covid, there have been some variations to the cyclical ups and downs of rental rates, Apartment List analysis said:
“The broad contours of this seasonal pattern are consistent, but in recent years we’ve seen sharper winter dips and more modest summer bumps as the market has gone through a soft spell amid a wave of new multifamily construction. In addition to steeper winter declines since 2022, we have also observed a slight shift in the timing of rental market seasonality.”
“Whereas May used to be the annual peak for rent growth, over the past three years March has been the hottest month, with rent growth slowing down during what were, prior to the pandemic, the months when prices would increase most quickly. This year again, we saw rent growth stall out in April, with month-over-month growth coming in just a hair below the March reading.”
National apartment rental costs peaked in mid-2022 after a year and a half of skyrocketing growth. Since then, the nationwide median rent has gradually drifted down and has fallen from that peak by a total of 5%, or $72 per month.
Despite the pullback in prices, today’s rent levels remain 20% higher than they were at the start of 2021, as urban areas began to recover from Covid-era declines.
Nationally, unoccupied units are taking an average of 35 days to be leased after being listed, five days longer than one year ago and nearly twice as long as it took units to turn over when the market was at its hottest in mid-2021.
Apartment List’s national vacancy index recently hit a peak of 7.3%, its highest level since at least 2017, before declining to 7.2% in the April report.
“That said, this month’s decline was modest, and the vacancy rate remains elevated above its long-run average,” analysts said. “And with mixed news on the labor market combined with renewed inflation concerns, there is reason to think that demand could be sluggish headed into the peak moving season. It’s possible that the vacancy rate will simply plateau at this elevated rate, rather than continuing to decline in a meaningful way.”
Apartments.com, Zumper release April data
Another analysis — from Apartments.com — recorded the average national apartment rent at $1,730 for April, up 0.5% from a year before.
“While apartment rent growth typically accelerates at this stage of the spring leasing season, gains in April were the weakest since 2014, excepting the pandemic year of 2020, suggesting that spring leasing season momentum is more restrained than in a typical year,” Apartments.com analysts said.
They added:
“While monthly rent growth has stabilized since late 2025, supply conditions and more measured demand growth continue to restrain pricing momentum nationally. Regionally, modest monthly rent gains are now widespread across the country, though year-over-year performance remains uneven and closely tied to local supply conditions.”
On a metro-area basis, San Francisco continues to outperform, posting rent growth of 7.3%, followed by San Jose at 4.3%, Norfolk at 4.2% and Chicago at 2.9%, according to Apartments.com. Meanwhile, markets experiencing the largest supply additions remained under pressure, led by Austin with a 4.1% annual decline, followed by Denver at -3.3% and San Antonio at -3.1%, reflecting new supply continuing to outpace demand.
Zumper, another data analytics firm that tracks apartment rents, also released April data over the past week.
Leading the pack in Zumper’s report was Manhattan (median rental rate for a one-bedroom unit of $4,540), San Francisco ($3,850) and Boston and Jersey City ($3,000 each). Arlington and the District of Columbia ranked seventh and eighth, respectively.
Nationally, median apartment rates in the Zumper survey were $1,508 for one-bedroom units and $1,895 for two bedrooms.
According to Zumper analyst Crystal Chen, year-over-year declines in rental costs are becoming a thing of the past as the national market recalibrates:
“Annual rent changes remain negative for the 10th straight month, but declines have nearly disappeared, with one-bedrooms down just 0.6% and two-bedrooms down 0.3%. With one-bedrooms just 2% below their December 2024 peak price of $1,538 and two-bedrooms nearing their August 2024 high of $1,915, national record rents could be challenged before summer ends if momentum holds.”
But not all markets are reacting the same, according to Zumper CEO Shawn Mullahy:
“Underneath the national averages, the rental market is splitting in two. Expensive coastal cities are seeing rents spike as supply remains constrained, while markets in the Sun Belt and Mountain States are still working through a significant inventory overhang that could take another year or two to fully absorb. What looks like a national recovery is increasingly just a handful of markets doing the heavy lifting.”
Chicago re-entered the top 10 for the first time in nearly two years with the third-highest annual growth rate in the nation for one-bedrooms, up 8.3% to $2,220 per month.
For the first time in Zumper’s reporting, Los Angeles fell out of the 10 most expensive markets, now ranking 11th at a median $2,210 for a one-bedroom unit.
