Average U.S. apartment rents saw a modest increase of 0.2 percent from March to April 2017, but rents increased in 81 percent of markets nationwide, according to a report from RENTCafé. The report uses data from the apartment listing service’s parent company, software provider Yardi. The RENTCafé research team analyzed data across the 250 largest cities in the United States for buildings containing 50 or more units. Based on the data, the average U.S. apartment saw a $2 increase in rent between March and April 2017. Rents increased in April in 203 of the 250 cities tracked by Yardi, while they decreased in 13 cities and stayed flat in 34. Year-over-year, rents went up 2 percent nationwide, which is “a significant reduction in regard to historical performance at this time of the year and is the lowest annual growth rate we’ve seen in more than three years,” according to the report’s author, Ama Otet. By comparison, average rents increased at triple that rate — 6 percent — from April 2015 to April 2016. California cities make up the bulk of the April rent-growth list, with 11 of the top 20 growth cities located in the state. Stockton, Calif., took the …
