JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – It’s the first time in more than three years that rent prices are trending downwards.
Rent prices in May were down a little more than a half of a percent (0.57%) compared to this time last year, according to Rent.com. It may not sound like much, but it’s a good sign after nearly two years of rent growth.
Melissa Ricks, a local realtor and owner of the Melissa Ricks Experience, says this doesn’t really come as a surprise.
“As someone who’s on the residential sale side and a landlord, this was bound to happen,” Ricks said.
A new report from Rent.com shows the national average monthly rent price was just below $2,000 at $1,995. Jacksonville rent prices are well below the average, dropping almost 2% this year to about $1600 a month.
“So now landlords are having to battle against keeping good tenants and keeping their prices comparable so they can keep them in there or losing them to purchasing,” Ricks said.
Some News4JAX viewers tell us they’re paying as much $1800 a month for an apartment on the Westside.
TELL US: How much do you pay for rent? Is it increasing or decreasing?
Another viewer told us they pay $1400 for a one-bedroom apartment at the St. Johns Town Center writing, “Our rent raised by $300 per month when we renewed in Feb. 2022.”
Ricks thinks that rent price hikes should be slowing down soon.
“I personally think they’re going to continue to go down until something happens with the market as a whole because right now sales prices are down also. That’s again consistent with the market,” Ricks said.
Another side effect of the market cooling? Renters are negotiating their rents with a higher success rate. 25% were successful, especially if they lived in the property for several years, according to a new study from Avail.
This all means renters have more leverage to negotiate their lease renewals. With the market cooling, almost half of landlords surveyed are not planning to increase rent prices to avoid turnover.
“Truthfully, when you have such low supply and such high demand like we had just post COVID, that’s what created this whirlwind. I think that landlords are truthfully going to have to get reasonable with their pricing,” Ricks said. “If you can go down the street, and a tenant can get a house for $200 less a month, they’re going to go there because affordability is an issue also.”