Rent has outpaced inflation in 9 of 10 US cities since 2016
US consumer prices rose 40.9% between January 2016 and July 2026. Asking rent in the median city rose 68.4%. A ranking of 706 cities against inflation over the same span.
Consumer prices in the United States rose 40.9% between January 2016 and July 2026, measured by the Bureau of Labor Statistics consumer price index. Over the same span, asking rent in the typical US city tracked here rose 68.4%. Rent outpaced inflation in 639 of 706 cities with continuous rent data across the period.
The gap holds in big cities as well as small ones. Among the 100 most populous cities in the set, 83 outpaced inflation, and the median rose 64.8%. Rent in four of those 100 more than doubled.
This is a measure of asking rents on listed units, not of what sitting tenants pay. A renter who has held the same apartment since 2016 has almost certainly seen smaller increases. The figures describe what it costs to move.
| # | City | Population | Rent, Jan 2016 | Rent, Jul 2026 | Change | vs. inflation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | San Bernardino, CA | 222,724 | $956 | $2,013 | 110.6% | +69.6 pts |
| 2 | Boise, ID | 237,242 | $896 | $1,857 | 107.2% | +66.3 pts |
| 3 | Stockton, CA | 322,326 | $978 | $1,990 | 103.5% | +62.5 pts |
| 4 | Reno, NV | 273,212 | $977 | $1,967 | 101.3% | +60.4 pts |
| 5 | Fresno, CA | 545,970 | $984 | $1,967 | 99.9% | +59.0 pts |
| 6 | Spokane, WA | 230,293 | $765 | $1,513 | 97.8% | +56.8 pts |
| 7 | Fort Wayne, IN | 268,589 | $687 | $1,295 | 88.5% | +47.6 pts |
| 8 | Winston-Salem, NC | 252,037 | $811 | $1,525 | 88.0% | +47.1 pts |
| 9 | Huntsville, AL | 222,791 | $705 | $1,319 | 87.1% | +46.1 pts |
| 10 | Riverside, CA | 319,069 | $1,308 | $2,441 | 86.6% | +45.7 pts |
| 11 | Detroit, MI | 638,530 | $722 | $1,347 | 86.6% | +45.6 pts |
| 12 | Newark, NJ | 310,178 | $1,146 | $2,123 | 85.2% | +44.3 pts |
| 13 | Tacoma, WA | 222,758 | $961 | $1,760 | 83.1% | +42.2 pts |
| 14 | Tucson, AZ | 547,073 | $785 | $1,421 | 81.0% | +40.1 pts |
| 15 | Tampa, FL | 401,618 | $1,102 | $1,992 | 80.8% | +39.8 pts |
The fastest increases are in mid-sized western cities
Nine of the fifteen largest-city increases are in the West. San Bernardino, California leads at 110.6%, taking rent from $956 to $2,013. Boise, Idaho follows at 107.2%, and Stockton, Reno, and Fresno all more than doubled or came within a rounding error of it.
These are not the most expensive rental markets in the country. They started cheap. Boise rent was $896 a month in January 2016, below the national figure at the time, and the increase brought it to $1,857. The pattern through this group is the same: metros that were affordable in 2016 absorbed the largest percentage increases.
Seventeen of the 100 largest cities lagged inflation
Washington, DC has the widest gap in the other direction. Rent there rose 27.6% against inflation of 40.9%, leaving it 13.4 percentage points behind. Houston, New Orleans, Austin, and Oakland follow.
Austin is the clearest case of a market that rose and then gave it back. It has been one of the most-covered rental markets of the period, and across the full span its rent rose 30.6%, below inflation.
| # | City | Population | Rent, Jan 2016 | Rent, Jul 2026 | Change | vs. inflation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Washington, DC | 681,294 | $1,982 | $2,528 | 27.6% | -13.4 pts |
| 2 | Houston, TX | 2,328,253 | $1,213 | $1,561 | 28.7% | -12.2 pts |
| 3 | New Orleans, LA | 371,853 | $1,270 | $1,648 | 29.8% | -11.2 pts |
| 4 | Austin, TX | 979,539 | $1,233 | $1,610 | 30.6% | -10.4 pts |
| 5 | Lubbock, TX | 264,814 | $1,050 | $1,380 | 31.4% | -9.5 pts |
| 6 | Arlington, VA | 236,254 | $2,073 | $2,729 | 31.6% | -9.3 pts |
| 7 | Oakland, CA | 439,418 | $2,033 | $2,691 | 32.4% | -8.6 pts |
| 8 | Corpus Christi, TX | 317,419 | $1,076 | $1,428 | 32.7% | -8.2 pts |
| 9 | San Antonio, TX | 1,479,835 | $1,039 | $1,390 | 33.8% | -7.2 pts |
| 10 | Denver, CO | 718,877 | $1,406 | $1,884 | 34.0% | -6.9 pts |
Small cities produce larger swings, and are kept out of the tables above
Across all 706 cities, the largest increases are in small markets: rent in Abilene, Texas reads 165.1% over the period, and nine of the ten largest increases are in cities under 100,000 people. Figures like these are treated with caution here. ZORI is built from the rental listings Zillow observes, and in a small market the mix of units being listed can shift enough to move the index without rents themselves moving that much. Our own rent-valuation model flags Abilene for this reason.
The tables on this page are therefore limited to the 100 most populous cities, where the sample is deep enough that a change in listing mix does not dominate. All 706 cities are in the CSV, with population included so anyone can set a different threshold.
Rent. Zillow Observed Rent Index (ZORI) at the city level, comparing January 2016 with July 2026, the most recent month published. ZORI is a repeat-listing index of asking rents across the single-family, condo, and multifamily stock Zillow observes. It measures asking rents on listed units, not rents paid across all occupied housing. The series is smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
Inflation. Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U), all items, US city average, 1982-84=100, not seasonally adjusted. January 2016 = 236.916 and July 2026 = 333.918, a change of 40.9%. Because ZORI is seasonally adjusted and CPI-U here is not, the two series are not adjusted identically, though both are measured across the same calendar span.
Window. The period begins in January 2016 rather than at the start of ZORI in 2015 because January 2016 is the earliest month whose CPI index value appears in the BLS historical table cited below. Using a start month we can cite directly was preferred over a slightly longer window.
Inclusion. A city needed a rent value in both January 2016 and July 2026 and at least 120 months of data in between, which left 706 cities. Population is from the RentDataNow cities table and is used only to identify the 100 largest; 21 of the 706 cities had no population match and are in the CSV without one.
A caution on small markets. Percentage changes in cities under roughly 100,000 people should be read as indicative. A shift in which units Zillow observes can move the index independently of market rents.
The full underlying dataset is available as a CSV for verification, republishing, or extending the analysis.
↓ rent-vs-inflation-since-2016.csvThese findings and the accompanying dataset are released under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. You are free to republish, including commercially, as long as you credit RentDataNow and link back to this page so readers can verify the underlying data.
RentDataNow, "Rent has outpaced inflation in 9 of 10 US cities since 2016," September 2026. https://rentdatanow.com/studies/rent-vs-inflation-since-2016
- Zillow Research, Zillow Observed Rent Index (ZORI), city series, July 2026 release.
- US Bureau of Labor Statistics, Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U), US city average, historical table.
- RentDataNow analysis of 706 city rent series, January 2016 to July 2026.
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