The national median asking rent in May was $1,686, down 1.5% year-over-year for the 34th consecutive month of declines, according to data from Realtor.com.
During the first quarter of the year, Realtor.com determined that Las Vegas led the nation as the metro with the greatest level of renter loyalty – 70% of online rental searches by local residents stayed within the metro. Austin, San Antonio, Houston and San Diego followed in the top five among the nation’s 50 largest metros.
On the flip side, Raleigh attracted the highest share of out-of-market rental demand in the first quarter 2026, with 69.1% of rental views coming from outside the metro. Richmond, Hartford, Providence, and Baltimore draw heavily from renters leaving New York, Boston, and Washington, DC, which Realtor.com attributed to each metro’s affordable rents and strong job markets. Detroit saw the most dramatic shift over time, with out-of-market rental demand nearly doubling between the pre-pandemic first quarter of 2020 to this year’s first quarter, rising from 28.1% to 51.8%.
“Local loyalty in markets like Las Vegas reflects renters finding real value close to home as rents soften. In markets like Raleigh, strong job opportunities and relative affordability are pulling in renters from across the country,” said Danielle Hale, chief economist at Realtor.com. “Renters and landlords alike can use this cross-market demand data to see which markets are magnets and which are anchors. Combined with pricing trends, these data not only signal how competitive a rental market is, they show whether that rental demand is homegrown or coming from outside of the market.”
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