Despite COVID-19, These 5 Markets Saw Rent Increases in 2020

Despite COVID-19, the five markets I’m about to talk about actually saw rent increases in 2020.

Today, with the help of our data team over at BPInsights, including our data scientist Dave Meyer, I want to share with you some cool stats on the top five markets that are seeing rent increases in 2020—regardless of what’s been going on in the world.

These five cities have been identified as seeing a large percentage change of average monthly rent between January and May 2020. So basically, over the past five months, these are the markets that have grown the most in rent.

Let’s get to the list.

5. Aventura, Florida

We have a city named after the Spanish word for adventure: Aventura. The average monthly rent in the beginning of 2020 for a unit in Aventura was $3,177. That was already pretty expensive.

And over the past five months, the monthly rent has shot up another 7.7%, or $243, to an average of $3,420 as of May 2020.

4. Houston, Texas

It’s known as the Space City: Houston. Despite COVID-19, Houston’s had a 7.8% increase in rent over the past five months.

That means if you were to rent an average home in Houston at the beginning of the year, you would’ve paid maybe $1,500 per month in rent. Fast forward five months and that same house is $1,635 a month in rent, a $119 increase.

3. Birmingham, Alabama

Also known as the Magic City, Birmingham sure did live up to its name. All they had to do was say “abracadabra” and rent suddenly jumped by 9.2% in just five months. Their average monthly rent of $1,043 at the beginning of 2020 is now up to $1,139 in rent in May.

2. Delray Beach, Florida

Next is a place known as the Village by the Sea. Sounds nice, right?

Delray Beach is only one of two places that grew rents over 10% in the last five months. Its already-high average rent of $2,200 a month grew by 12.1% in May. That means rent increased $266 dollars to $2,467 a month.

I guess it really does pay to live by the sea.

1. Nashville, Tennessee

Get out your drums, guitars, and microphones—we’re singing all the way to Music City. Nashville tops our list as having the largest rent growth so far in 2020.

Even with COVID-19, Nashville saw a staggering 14.8% rent increase over the last five months. Its average monthly rent at the start of the year was $1,772. That’s grown to $2,034 in May.

For context on how crazy this is, if Nashville were to keep up that trend for the rest of the year, they would be at a 30% annual rent growth. That means places would rent on average for well over $500 a month more than they did at the end of 2019.

The Bottom Line

I hope you enjoyed learning about the cities with the largest rent increases so far this year. There’s still a lot of the year to finish. And depending on how this whole coronavirus mess plays out, these numbers could be completely different by the end of the year.

If you’re looking for more insightful data—because good decisions are based on good data—on historical and future-looking trends in the real estate market, be sure to check out the BPInsights.

Think your city should have made the list?

Share your thoughts in the comments below.

Note By BiggerPockets: These are opinions written by the author and do not necessarily represent the opinions of BiggerPockets.