High Earners Are Benefiting the Most From Rent Declines—While Low-Income Households Suffer ‘Disproportionate’ Hikes

Since 2019, low-income renters have faced the steepest price hikes while their wealthier counterparts saw more modest increases—even leading some of the affluent set to delay homeownership.

When relief finally came after the frenzied years of the pandemic and rents started easing in 2023, budget-conscious renters were again left behind, as higher-priced rentals experienced bigger declines than more affordable units, according to the December 2025 rental report from Realtor.com®.

Overall, from late 2019 to 2025, the national median has grown just under 17%, yet the bottom of the market—defined as the 25th percentile of asking rent—has surged roughly 20%.

At the same time, the upper tier of the market (75th percentile) saw rent growth of just 12.5%.

"This puts disproportionate pressure on the lowest earners to afford their rent while higher-end renters are enjoying the majority of recent rent declines," says Realtor.com senior economist Joel Berner. 

Researchers evaluated rental data for studio, one-bedroom, and two-bedroom units in the 50 largest U.S. metros listed for rent on Realtor.com.

To uncover the challenges facing low-income renters—and how top-dollar tier prices influence the rental market as a whole—economists examined the 25th percentile (lower-priced rentals) and 75th percentile (higher-priced rentals), comparing rent changes at those levels since the pre-pandemic period.

"What we see across the country since 2019 is a compression of asking rents," says Berner, referring to a narrowing of the price gap between cheaper and more expensive units. "This is due to both a stronger run-up in lower-priced rentals as well as a more modest recent decline."

Rents have been trending down since 2023, with December marking the 29th consecutive month of year-over-year declines. The median asking rent across the top 50 metros registered at $1,689—down 0.7% from December 2024.

But looking at the national median's trajectory does not tell the whole story. A closer study of rents at the high and low ends of the market shows that most of the relief has been concentrated in costlier for-lease properties, while cheaper units saw minimal declines.

Since December 2022, higher-priced rentals have fallen 3.5% in price compared with 2.3% for the median and just 0.8% for lower-priced properties.

"This helps to answer the question we often hear, 'if median rent is falling, why do low-income renters continue to struggle?'" says Berner.

The economist adds that this trend also helps explain why demand in the for-sale market has softened in recent years: Renters in higher-priced units—often those with the means to buy—are opting to put off homeownership because they feel "very comfortable" with their current housing expenses.

Least and most affordable markets for low-income renters

The narrowing gap between higher- and lower-priced rental units varies greatly by market, with major implications for affordability.

According to the report, between December 2019 and December 2025, Boston's lower-cost rentals saw the steepest price growth, making them the most unaffordable for low-income households. 

During that period, the 25th percentile rent as a share of the median increased seven percentage points, from 79.2% to 86.1%. 

Simply put, last month there were fewer rental units in Boston priced below the metro's median of $2,844 per month than there were six years ago, leaving low-income families with fewer housing options. 

Nashville, TN, came a close second, with a 6.8 percentage point uptick, followed by Atlanta (6.1), Chicago (5.3), and Baltimore (5.2). 

Michelle Becker, a Nashville-area real estate agent, says that the metro's constrained supply of affordable rental units can be traced back to the years after the pandemic, when many owners of older, rundown—and therefore cheaper—rental properties sold them to developers. Those homes were either tore down and replaced with luxury housing, or renovated and relisted at much higher rents.

"That trend decreased the number of older single-family homes, duplexes, or even larger
properties, that were renting on the lower end of the market," Becker tells Realtor.com.

When rental inventory in Nashville began expanding in 2024, the agent says it offered little relief to low-income households, since most of the new housing consisted of high-end units with correspondingly high rents.

"With the decrease in older, smaller properties that were renting at the lower end of the
market, and the rapid increase in rents between late 2020 and early 2024, many renters were
pushed out of the Nashville market and have moved to outlying communities or in with family," says Becker.

As a result of this shift, the agent says the makeup of the rental community and market in
Nashville has changed drastically and "may not ever look the same again." She adds that a targeted effort is needed to create rental options at the lower end of the market that were lost.

On the other end of the spectrum, Cleveland emerged last month as the market where it has become the easiest for low-income earners to afford housing. The metro's median rent was $1,257 in December.

Although rents in New York City are notoriously high, lower-cost units in the Big Apple saw the second-biggest drop in price as a percentage of the median compared with 2019, meaning that there are currently more options available for budget households than six years ago.  

"NYC metro rents used to be more tightly packed, but they've spread out below the median a bit and the 25th percentile has fallen relative to the median," explains Berner. 

Low-end rental markets in Birmingham, AL, Detroit, and Cincinnati also stood out for their affordability.