A wave of new apartments have pushed the number of vacancies up and given the advantage to tenants. Property managers are offering free months and have waived fees to fill their empty units.
Last month, Zillow called it a moment.
It was a rare stretch when a typical household could afford most of what was listed. June numbers show that the moment isn’t over, but the numbers are creeping back in favor of property managers, Zillow noted.
According to Zillow, the typical U.S. asking rent climbed to $1,965 in June, up 2.2% from a year ago. That’s a slight acceleration, Zillow noted, and it caps a telling spring: April, May and June each posted stronger month-over-month gains than the same months in 2025.
Zillow said there are still deals to be had.
Many Rentals Come with Concessions
It said that almost 2 in 5 listings on Zillow, or 39.7%, came with a concession in June, up from 35.2% a year earlier. Concessions could include a free month’s rent, waived fees, free parking.
For a renter who lands a concession, the real cost of a lease can be noticeably less than the sticker price suggests. June handed renters some odd stats: rents inching up on paper, and property managers still competing hard to sign them.
“Supply is the most direct lever to keep rents in check over the long term,” said Orphe Divounguy, Senior Economist at Zillow. “Markets that invested in new housing are rewarding renters with more choices, more concessions and more competitive pricing.”
The growth of new apartments that reshaped the market was set in motion years ago, and it is now receding, Zillow noted. Completions, the brokerage said, fell 16.6% year over year in June, even as net absorption, the pace at which renters fill units, continued to climb.
Zillow reported that fewer new buildings are opening their doors just as demand holds steady, helped by a for-sale market so expensive that many would-be buyers keep renting instead of pulling the trigger on buying a home.
The higher concession rates renters encounter today reflect a market still working through the inventory it built during the boom, Zillow said. As those units fill, Zillow said the deals are expected to become less common, even if rent growth itself stays measured.
A Building Boom
Zillow said that the metros with the most concessions are the ones that built the most.
Charlotte leads the nation at 67.1%, followed by Denver (65.9%) and Dallas (64.6%). In several of those markets, rents have actually fallen over the past year: down 1.8% in San Antonio, 1.7% in Austin and 1.3% in Denver.
Renters in those cities are reaping the benefits of a building boom, Zillow said.
The opposite holds where building is hardest, however.
San Francisco leads the nation in rent growth, up 8.2% to $3,301, with just a quarter of listings offering any concession at all. San Jose rents increased 6.2% to $3,729, and Chicago’s climbed 5.2% to $2,275. In those markets, the room to negotiate is already thin.
The divide shows up by property type, too. Single-family rents rose 3% over the year to $2,320, roughly double the 1.5% gain for apartments, now at $1,789, Zillow noted.
Zillow said it expects rent growth to stay moderate through the rest of this year: single-family up 3.1%, multifamily up 2%, roughly in line with last year. The deals on the table today aren’t going to vanish overnight, Zillow said, but it’s clear which way the market is heading.
The renters with the most leverage right now are the ones shopping where developers built, Zillow noted.
“The payoff from the construction boom is showing up clearly for renters right now,” Divounguy said. For everyone else, June’s numbers carry a simpler message: the deals are still there, but they may not be for long.
