Article Text
Apartment rents declined year over year across every Fairfax County market analyzed in May, even as the usual spring leasing season began pushing prices higher nationally.
All seven county areas tracked by Apartment List posted lower rents than in May 2025. Annandale recorded the steepest annual drop at 5.7%.
Median monthly rents for one-bedroom, two-bedroom and all units were:
- Annandale: $1,846, $2,106 and $2,129, down 5.7% annually
- Centreville: $2,085, $2,422 and $2,467, down 2.2%
- Fair Oaks: $2,271, $2,538 and $2,489, down 2.1%
- Fairfax: $1,927, $2,205 and $2,295, down 2.9%
- Herndon: $1,844, $2,212 and $2,240, down 1.7%
- Reston: $2,207, $2,337 and $2,381, down 2.3%
- Tysons: $2,374, $2,846 and $2,610, down 2.4%
Most of those declines exceeded the national decrease. The nationwide median rent fell 1.5% from a year earlier to $1,379.
Apartment List analysts said national rents peaked in mid-2022 after roughly 18 months of rapid growth. The median has since fallen 4.4%, or $63 per month, but remains 20% above its level at the beginning of 2021.
The analysts expect seasonal forces to lift prices through the summer, when most moves occur, before activity and rents typically soften in the fall and winter.
Arlington remains among the priciest markets
The median rent across the Washington metropolitan area was $2,161 in May.
Apartment List’s monthly ranking of the country’s 100 largest urban markets does not include the Fairfax County areas, but neighboring Arlington ranked fifth overall. It remained the most expensive market outside California.
Only San Francisco at $3,446, Irvine at $3,049, San Jose at $3,011 and Fremont at $2,886 had higher median rents. At the other end of the ranking were Toledo at $894, Tucson at $1,030 and Wichita at $1,034.
The national multifamily vacancy rate edged down to 7.2%, its first monthly decline since late 2021. Properties took an average of 30 days to lease in May, down from 34 days in April, although analysts said that figure remained elevated.
National surveys show spring price growth
Zumper’s May 28 survey found the national median one-bedroom rent increased 0.7% from the previous month to $1,519. Two-bedroom rents rose 0.4% to $1,903.
Analyst Crystal Chen said the increases signaled a return of the customary spring leasing-season lift after two unusually muted years.
New York City’s one-bedroom median climbed 3.1% in one month to a record $4,680, the highest figure in more than a decade of Zumper data. San Francisco’s one-bedroom rent surpassed $4,000 for the first time and led the country with annual growth exceeding 21%.
Conditions were markedly different in Texas. Nearly every market there posted an annual decline in one-bedroom rent, led by San Antonio’s 10.4% drop.
Zumper CEO Shawn Mullahy said national averages were obscuring two distinct markets. Supply-constrained coastal cities have regained pricing power, while many Sun Belt landlords continue to contend with a wave of recently delivered apartments.
A separate Apartments.com report found national rents rose for a sixth consecutive month, increasing 0.2% in May to an average of $1,737. Annual growth remained relatively flat at 0.7%.
Despite those gains, analysts described the spring leasing season as more subdued than usual because high apartment supply continued to restrain prices in many markets.
All five U.S. regions recorded monthly increases, led by the Northeast and Pacific regions at 0.3%. The Midwest posted the strongest annual growth at 2%, while rents fell 0.8% in the South and 1.7% in the Mountain region.
Among major metropolitan areas, San Francisco led annual growth at 8.4%, followed by San Jose at 4.9% and Norfolk at 4.4%. Supply-heavy Austin and San Antonio each recorded 3.3% annual declines, while Denver fell 3.1%.
Forty-three of the 50 largest U.S. apartment markets posted monthly rent increases in May, down from 45 in April.