Real-time Rents are NOT falling, despite recent claims of financial analysts and NY Fed President John Williams: Zillow Rent Index

Sources: https://www.zillow.com/research/march-2023-rental-report-32399/

https://www.zumper.com/blog/rental-price-data/

https://www.apartmentlist.com/research/national-rent-data

Asking rents climbed by $9, or 0.5%, from February to March, according to the latest reading of the Zillow Observed Rent Index (ZORI). That builds on February’s 0.3% increase, when monthly rent growth turned positive after a 4-month slide. Typical asking rents at the national level now stand at $1,996, which is 6.0% higher than one year ago, and only 0.1% below the peak of $1,997 observed in September 2022.

Real-time rents are not falling. They simply are not. I keep hearing very important financial analysts on Bloomberg and CNBC, White House Economists like Jared Bernstein, as well as Fed President John Williams today claiming that real-time rents have fallen and current OER rent is outdated.

However, all the real-time rent growth indexes show that rents rose in February and March 2023. The Zillow index, Zumper Index, and ApartmentList index all show rents rising between 0.5% and 0.6% monthly. All three show yearly growth of 6.0%-6.5%. They are consistent in showing a few months of declines in Q4 2022, and growth in Q1 2023.

Government Economists, Federal Reserve Presidents, and respected Financial Analysts are utilizing outdated data themselves. Simply claiming something exists does not make it so.