U.S. cities where rents are dropping — and where they’re going up: report

People have been on the move since the Covid-19 pandemic hit. With remote work at play, many are leaving expensive cities like New York, Los Angeles and Chicago for the suburbs or for more affordable cities like Austin, Phoenix or Nashville, according to a LinkedIn report.

Rents prices across the country have been adjusting to the trends, according to a new report from Apartment Guide.

For example, the average rent a one-bedroom apartment in notoriously expensive cities like San Francisco, Manhattan and Seattle is decreasing, while cities like Kansas City, Missouri, Gilbert, Arizona and Las Vegas are seeing spikes in average one-bedroom rent prices.

“We’ve been seeing this trend playing out for a few months now, but the decline in rent prices in notoriously expensive cities stands out here,” Brian Carberry, senior managing editor at Apartment Guide tells CNBC Make It.

While the average rent on a one-bedroom is down 45% in San Francisco and 27% in Manhattan, Carberry believes at some point the prices will level off as cities begin to reopen and people look to move back for work.

“For renters, this is a prime opportunity to get into an expensive area for way less than it would have cost before the pandemic,” hey says.

To conduct the report, Apartment Guide compared rent price data from March 2020 to March 2021 using apartment listing from both ApartmentGuide.com and Rent.com.

Here are the U.S. cities where average rent for a one-bedroom is increasing and decreasing the most, according to the Apartment Guide report.

Cities where average one-bedroom rents are increasing

1. Kansas City, Missouri

Rents are up 33.5%

2. Gilbert, Arizona

Rents are up 26%

3. Las Vegas

Rents are up 25.3%

4. Riverside, California

Rents are up 24.9%

5. Buffalo, New York

Rents are up 23.3%

6. Columbus, Ohio

Rents are up 22.1%

7. Durham, North Carolina

Rents are up 20%

8.Detroit

Rents are up 18.6%

9. New Orleans

Rents are up 18.3%

10. Virginia Beach, Virginia

Rents are up 5.3%

Cities where average one-bedroom rents are decreasing
1.San Francisco

Rents have decreased 45%

2. Chesapeake, Virginia

Rents have decreased 29.4%

3. Manhattan

Rent have decreased 27.3%

4. Long Beach, California

Rents have decreased 27%

5. Colorado Springs, Colorado

Rents have decreased 24.6%

6. Seattle

Rents have decreased 18.9%

7. San Jose, California

Rents have decreased 16.2%

8. Los Angeles

Rents have decreased 16.0%

9. Jersey City, New Jersey

Rents have decreased 15.5%

10. San Antonio, Texas