{"id":187555,"date":"2026-04-17T10:49:42","date_gmt":"2026-04-17T16:49:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/blog\/?p=187555"},"modified":"2026-04-17T10:51:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-17T16:51:08","slug":"housing-markets-where-renters-have-the-most-power","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/blog\/housing-markets-where-renters-have-the-most-power","title":{"rendered":"The Markets Where Renters Have the Most Power\u2014And What Investors Can Do About It"},"content":{"rendered":"

If you\u2019ve been fretting about unanswered postings for your vacant apartments, you\u2019re not alone. According to new data from<\/span> Apartments.com<\/span><\/a> and<\/span> Realtor.com<\/span><\/a>, the rental outlook has been decidedly mixed over the last year, with the Sunbelt states hit the hardest.<\/span><\/p>\n

Apartments.com shows that the states with the biggest rent declines in March, compared to the same time the previous year, were Fort Myers (-6.4%) and Naples (-4.4%) in Florida, followed by Katy (-3.3%) and Austin (-3.1%) in Texas, and Denver, Colorado (-2.8%). The Northeast, Midwest, and California fared comparatively better, with Chicago (+3.6%) and San Francisco (+7.8%) enjoying a bounce from the past 12 months.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cMore Choice and More Time\u201d for Renters<\/span><\/h2>\n

Realtor.com painted a slightly more somber outlook in its January 2026 report, citing 29 straight months of year-over-year rent declines for zero-to-two-bedroom properties and an average rental vacancy rate of 7.6% in 2025 among the nation\u2019s largest 50 metros. Both reports agree that the Sunbelt is where renters have the greatest upper hand, but generally, renters are in a far more advantageous position than they were a few years ago.<\/span><\/p>\n

Grant Montgomery, national director of U.S. multifamily analytics for CoStar Group, told<\/span> Apartments.com<\/span><\/a> that \u201cfor renters, that means the apartment search in 2026 still looks different than it did during the peak of the pandemic-era housing shortage,\u201d emphasizing that \u201cthere is more choice, more time to decide, and greater negotiating leverage, particularly at newer or higher-priced properties.\u201d He added that while construction has slowed, the Sunbelt is still working through an oversupply and that \u201cthe advantage [remains] with renters rather than landlords in most of these markets.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Rental Competitiveness: A Nuanced Analysis of the Rental Market<\/span><\/h2>\n

RentCafe.com<\/span><\/a> did its own number crunching, matching cities against one another for a competitiveness report that factored in the following criteria:<\/span><\/p>\n