Recent data suggests rents are up significantly in the suburbs and often faster than rents in cities:

Rents in suburbs climbed 26% through this past July since March 2020, 8 percentage points higher than the gain in urban cores, according to a report from rentals website Apartment List. Suburban-rent growth was greater than its urban counterpart in 28 of the 33 metro areas studied, the company said…

The widest rent gap was in Portland, Ore., which lost nearly 3% of its population between 2020 and 2022. Rents in Portland’s suburbs are up 23% since 2020, compared with about 2% in the center city.

Moves to the suburbs have continued despite a historically difficult for-sale housing market. The number of existing-home sales in July shrunk to its lowest level for that month since 2010, and prospective buyers continue to struggle with 7% mortgage interest rates and sale prices that remain near records.

Rents for single-family homes, meanwhile, continue to grow in most parts of the country. House rents in the Chicago, Boston and Orlando, Fla., metro areas each rose more than 5% in June compared with a year earlier, according to data firm CoreLogic. Green Street, a real-estate research firm, predicts single-family-home rental landlords will post the highest returns of all real-estate owners this year.

Though apartment asking rents are declining slightly in 2023, on average that drop has been felt less in suburbs, Apartment List said. Rents in suburban towns around Charlotte, N.C., and St. Louis, for example, are still growing, while in adjacent urban cores, growth in rents now runs negative, when measured annually.

Traditionally, the suburbs are places with single-family homes. Renters can be viewed with suspicion.

Yet, social and economic conditions have pushed toward more rental units. There are fewer starter homes. Some people want flexibility rather than locking into higher interest rates and economic uncertainty. Single-family homes can be rented out and are not just occupied by homeowners. Denser suburban downtowns and population nodes can include more rental units.

Whether this persists long-term will be interesting to see. Will people shift from renting to owning when conditions are more favorable? Are more suburban communities open to rental units rather than focusing development efforts on single-family homes?