Those wishing to partake of the urbanizing atmosphere of Tysons and the Mosaic district around Merrifield are having to pay more for the privilege, according to new apartment-rental data.
Both areas have seen year-over-year increases in median rentals even as the nation as a whole saw a contraction in costs.
That’s according to July figures reported by Apartment List, which tracks 100 urban areas, including the Washington region.
For Tysons, median apartment rents in July were $2,018 for one-bedroom units, $2,413 for two bedrooms. That’s up 0.5 percent from a year before.
For the Merrifield area, the rates of $2,085/$2,488 represented a boost of 1.2 percent.
Across the D.C. metro region as a whole, the median apartment-rental rate (for all size units) was $1,993, up 1 percent. Nationally, the median rental rate of $1,372 was down 0.7 percent.
Irvine, Calif. had the highest median rate ($3,081) and Cleveland the lowest ($796).
A full two-thirds of the areas tracked by Apartment List reported year-over-year declines in July, led by Boise (Idaho), where the median apartment-rental rate fell 6.9 percent.
During the pandemic, Boise had been one of the high-flyers in the rental market, with some of the highest appreciation rates in the nation.
Oakland (Calif.) and Henderson (Nev.) rounded out the top three in year-over-year declines at 6.6 percent and 6.4 percent, respectively.
While only 34 communities posted year-over-year increases, some were quite strong. Madison (Wisc.) led the list at 6.7 percent, followed by two Midwestern bastions: Omaha (up 5.1%) and Wichita (up 5%).
In many parts of the country, new units coming online are putting renters back in the driver’s set for the first time in years. Apartment List’s national apartment-vacancy rate of 7.3 percent for July is higher even than at the height of the pandemic, when some were fleeing major cities for health and economic concerns.
“With a record number of multi-family apartment units currently under construction, this vacancy rate will remain elevated in the near future,” Apartment List analysts said. “For the first time since the early stages of the pandemic, property owners will compete for a smaller pool of tenants instead of the other way around.”
In other areas of Fairfax County, median rents were $2,103/$2,569 in Fair Oaks, up 2.4 percent year-over-year, and $1,841/$1,996 in Reston, down 0.6 percent.
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For the full national report, see the Website at https://www.apartmentlist.com/research/national-rent-data.
