Kentucky Rent Report – April 2019

• The national average rent reached $1,436 in April 2019, up by 3% ($42) year over year, and by 0.3% ($5) month over month, according to Yardi Matrix data.
• Louisville, KY renters saw the highest annual rent increase in April (3.6%), reaching $946 per month. 
• Renters in Florence and Louisville pay on average $124 more per month than they did 5 years ago

Rents see a 3% annual increase in April, the lowest annual increase in 11 months

Nationally, average rent prices rose by 3% year-over-year, according to the latest Yardi Matrix data on apartment market trends. Rents averaged $1,436 this April — the second month in a row to witness a 0.3% m-o-m growth. Compared to last April, renters pay $42 more on average per month following relatively flat m-o-m rent increases during the off-season.

Renting in Kentucky’s cities in April 2019

The average rent in Kentucky’s largest cities is generally lower than the national average rent. The fastest growing rents in April were in Louisville, where rental apartment prices increased by 3.6% over the year, $33 more per month. Lexington apartments saw the second highest annual increase, jumping by 2.2%, $19 more expensive than the same month last year. If we look at 5-year changes in average rents, apartment prices in Florence and Louisville both registered a sharp increase since 2015 — 16.5% and 15.1, respectively. Compared to 5 years ago, renters in these two cities pay $124 more per month.

The slowest rising rents were in Florence, where prices grew by a modest 2% year-0ver-year.

Of the cities analyzed, Louisville apartments are the state’s most expensive for renters, with an average rent of $946, followed by apartments in Lexington, where the average monthly rent reached $901, $19 more than in April 2018. The cheapest city to rent an apartment in is Florence, with an average rent of $875 per month.

Methodology

RentCafe is a nationwide apartment search website that enables renters to easily find apartments and houses for rent throughout the United States.

To prepare the state rent report, we analyzed only cities with a rental stock of at least 2,000 apartments in 50+ unit buildings. To compile the national rent report, RentCafe’s research team analyzed rent data across the 253 largest cities in the U.S., in large-scale apartment buildings with 50 or more units.

Rent data was provided by Yardi Matrix, a business development and asset management tool for brokers, sponsors, banks and equity sources underwriting investments in the multifamily, office, industrial and self-storage sectors. Rental rate coverage is for Market Rate properties only. Fully Affordable properties are not included in the Yardi Matrix rental surveys and are not reported in rental rate averages.