Alexandria’s median apartment rents declined just under 1% year over year in October and remain about 5% off the city’s all-time high, according to new data.
The city’s median apartment rental rates were $2,005 for one-bedroom units, $2,643 for two bedrooms and $2,189 overall, according to figures reported Oct. 28 by Apartment List.
That’s down 0.9% from a year before but was up 1.7% since the start of the year. Alexandria’s median rental rate remained about 1.1% above the D.C. metro area as a whole.
The city’s median apartment cost stood at $1,921 when Covid roared in with significant regional and national economic impacts. As a result, Alexandria’s median rental rates declined for nearly a year, bottoming out in January 2021 at $1,746.
A rebound then began, reaching a peak of $2,305 in May 2025 — about 5% higher than the October 2026 cost.
Across the metro area, where rents followed a similar Covid-era trajectory, the median rental cost of $2,165 in October was down 0.1% from a year before. Year-over-year rental costs also declined slightly in much of Fairfax County, but were higher in Arlington.
Arlington ($2,604) remained in its usual position of fifth most expensive urban area among the 100 largest ranked by Apartment List. Four California communities had higher median costs: San Francisco ($3,842), San Jose ($3,146), Irvine ($3,144) and Fremont ($2,980).
On the other end of the scale, the most affordable rental markets for the month were found in Toledo, Ohio ($895), Cleveland ($1,018), Wichita, Kan. ($1,025), Tucson, Ariz. ($1,041) and Memphis, Tenn. ($1,063).
Nationally, October’s median rental cost was $1,215 for one-bedroom units, $1,369 for two bedrooms and $1,384 overall in the Apartment List survey.
October’s national data provided a positive milestone, Apartment List analysts said.
“Year-over-year rent growth in the U.S. flipped positive in October for the first time since mid-2023, though just barely,” the analysts said. “The vacancy rate is also gradually tightening, as the market transitions out of the soft conditions that have prevailed in recent years.”
At the same time, many landlords are offering concessions to renters, suggesting ongoing softness in the market.
Nationally, the median national rental rate peaked in mid-2026. Since then, the median has fallen by about 4%, or $58 per month.
And as more vacant units have come onto the market, those units have also been vacant for longer periods.
“Units leased in October had been sitting on the market for an average of 36 days, up two days compared to last month and somewhat elevated for this time of year,” Apartment List analysts said.
Second survey also sees national increases
A separate tracking organization, Zumper, reported on Oct. 28 that, nationally, one-bedroom apartments climbed 0.5% annually to a median rental rate of $1,519 and two-bedrooms grew 0.7% to $1,901.
“This month marks the strongest annual readings for both bedroom types since May 2025,” analysts said. “It’s also the second straight month that both have been positive simultaneously, following 16 months without this trend.”
New York City held the top spot at $4,610 for one-bedroom apartment rents, with San Francisco $180 behind at $4,430, itself a record for that city. San Francisco’s two-bedroom rent slipped slightly to $6,320 from last month’s record of $6,340, but it is still up 27.9% year over year.
“The same economic pressures are cutting both ways for the rental market,” Zumper CEO Shawn Mullahy said in an analysis of current trends:
“With elevated mortgage rates, would-be buyers are staying renters longer. But the same inflation that pushed rates up has wages lagging prices and employers hiring less, which leaves renters little room to absorb further increases and can slow the new household formation that drives demand. You end up with more renters but less room to raise rents, which helps explain why national gains are still measured in fractions of a percent.”
San Francisco (+26.2%), Virginia Beach, Va. (+16.4%), Chicago (+12.4%), Boise, Idaho (+11.5%) and Akron, Ohio (+9.3%) lead the list of biggest annual gainers in the Zumper ranking, with Cleveland (+9.2%) just behind.
On the other side, Aurora, Colo. (-9.2%), San Antonio (-8.7%), Durham, N.C. (-8.4%), Nashville, Tenn. (-7.0%) and Denver (-6.8%) posted the steepest annual declines, but no market in the report fell by double digits this month, Zumper analysts said.
Arlington dropped to eighth most expensive rental market nationally in the October report released by Zumper, having held down the seventh position for much of the year.
The decline dropped Arlington behind Honolulu, which in September had tied with the local county for seventh most expensive out of 100 urban localities in the Zumper ranking.
National vacancy rate declines
The national apartment vacancy rate continues to decline as landlords are offering incentives to fill units, Apartments.com said in its third-quarter RentPulse index, released Oct. 28. According to Apartments.com, which is a subsidiary of Northern Virginia-based CoStar:
“The national vacancy rate fell to 7.8%, down 0.5 percentage points from a year ago and its lowest level since late 2023, as the historic wave of apartment construction begins to recede. Yet landlords are still competing for renters, with the national concession rate rising to 4.2%, 0.6 percentage points higher than last year.”
In parts of the Upper Midwest, limited construction and strengthening demand are pushing rents higher as recently delivered apartments are absorbed, analysts said.
In Las Vegas, Salt Lake City and Southwest Florida, excess supply continues to push rents lower and give renters greater leverage, while Texas sits somewhere in between, with significant discounts still available even as leasing picks up and vacancies begin to decline.
New York continues to dominate the least affordable major rental markets, according to the survey, while other high-cost markets including Miami, Boston and Jersey City, N.J. also rank among the most challenging for renters.
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