National asking rent growth has officially crossed into negative territory on a year-over-year basis and the February data suggests the trend has room to run. After decelerating steadily throughout 2025, the February print came in at -0.2% YoY, following January’s -0.2%. The national average asking rent rose just 0.1% month-over-month to $2,008, but the broader trajectory is clear: persistent new supply is eroding pricing power at the national level. This is the first time in the current cycle that we’ve seen back-to-back months of annual declines.
This report draws on REBA Benchmark data, sourced from 100% publicly available listings across 30 million multi-family units updated daily.
A Widening Quality Bifurcation
One of the most important dynamics in the current market is the divergence across quality tiers. A++ properties, the newest and highest-quality assets, are still posting positive year-over-year asking rent growth at +0.4%, though that figure has decelerated from +0.6% a year ago. Class A has turned negative at -0.3%. And Class B is declining fastest at -0.5% YoY.
This isn’t surprising, but the magnitude of the gap is worth noting. Renters with flexibility are gravitating toward top-tier product, particularly in markets where concession-adjusted pricing on new construction is increasingly competitive with older inventory. Class B assets are bearing the brunt of that trade-down pressure, and the occupancy data confirms it.
A and A++ occupancy held steady in February at 95.4% and 95.2%, respectively. Class B, however, slid to 93.3%, widening the gap between top-tier and lower-quality properties. Absorption challenges are disproportionately concentrated in older, less competitive inventory and that gap shows no signs of narrowing in the near term.
Where Rents Are Still Growing
Midwest and Northeast metros dominate the top of the leaderboard, benefiting from limited new supply relative to their Sun Belt peers. Virginia Beach leads the nation at +5.1% YoY, followed by San Jose (+3.6%), Chicago (+3.1%), and San Francisco (+2.6%). Hartford, Minneapolis, Richmond, Cincinnati, St. Louis, and Cleveland round out the top ten, all posting growth between +1.6% and +2.2% YoY rent growth.
The common thread across these markets is straightforward: they didn’t overbuild. While Sun Belt metros were absorbing record deliveries, most of these Midwest and Northeast markets maintained relatively constrained pipelines. The result is positive rent growth even in a broadly soft national environment.
Where the Pain is Concentrated
Sun Belt and Western metros account for nearly all of the steepest declines. Austin continues to lead the nation in rent losses at -5.1% YoY, followed by Denver (-4.3%), Phoenix (-4.1%), Tampa (-3.3%), and New Orleans (-3.2%). San Antonio, Salt Lake City, Las Vegas, and Charlotte are also in negative territory.
With 27 metros now posting year YoY declines, rent losses are broad-based. But the worst pain remains concentrated in a handful of oversupplied markets rather than reflecting uniform national weakness. The timing and pace of supply tapering in these metros will be the key variable to watch through the back half of 2026.
San Francisco: The AI Outlier
San Francisco deserves a closer look. At the metro level, the MSA is posting +2.6% YoY asking rent growth, but that number masks extraordinary variation at the neighborhood level. Several zip codes in core San Francisco neighborhoods are posting 12%+ year-over-year growth, with pockets exceeding 15%. The AI boom is the primary demand driver, funneling high-income tenants into the city’s most desirable corridors.
Meanwhile, the East Bay (Oakland, Hayward, San Leandro) and parts of the Peninsula remain negative, reflecting the uneven demand recovery. The intra-metro divergence in San Francisco may be the most dramatic example of neighborhood-level rent bifurcation in the country right now and a reminder that metro-level averages can obscure as much as they reveal.
This level of granularity, down to the zip code and floorplan, is available across all MSAs in the REBA Benchmark dataset. Read the full report here.
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