Rent prices dip slightly in Boise. Will that mean anything moving forward?
Rent prices in Boise over the past year have continually increased at a higher rate than the national average, but tenants might be able to breathe a sigh of relief heading into 2022.
Average rent prices in the City of Trees decreased by 0.3% last month, and Boise was one of 61 of the nation’s largest 100 cities to see prices fall, according to Apartment List’s latest estimates.
“A slight dip in rents at this time of year is typical of seasonality in the market, but it’s especially notable after a year of record-setting growth,” the Apartment List report said.
National rent prices increased by 17.8% in 2021, looming large over the next-closest rise in recent years (3.2% in 2018).
The median for a two-bedroom apartment in Boise for December 2021 sat at $1,202, slotting the city in between Detroit ($930), which has a population exceeding 670,000, and Dallas ($1,360), population 1.33 million. The median for a one-bedroom apartment in Boise currently stands at $1,013.
Although any drop in rent is likely a welcome one for Boiseans, there’s still no getting around the fact that Apartment Lists is comparing it to much larger cities. Fast-growing Boise’s 2020 Census numbers show a population of just more than 235,000.
Boise’s month-to-month rent decrease isn’t the first one in the past year — it fell by 3.2% between September and October — but it does follow closely with the national average. For the first time since December 2020, national rent prices have taken a drop: 0.2% from November to December last year.
Boise’s drop ranked it No. 52 in terms of rent movement among the nation’s 100 largest cities. That’s a far cry from when Boise led the nation with a 5.2% increase in March 2020.
Despite the small drop at the end of the year, 2021 was still very good for Boise landlords and apartment management companies. Rent prices rose by 20.2%, coming in above the national average of 17.8%. Rent prices grew by 22% across the state of Idaho as a whole.
One reason given for Boise’s increase has been an influx of new residents throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. From 2019 to 2020, the city saw a 2.94% population increase, the highest year-to-year increase this decade, and it had a 0.82% increase from 2020 to 2021.
Could there be a light at the end of the tunnel?
“While the apartment market remains tight,” the report said, “the national vacancy rate sits just above 4% compared to 6% pre-pandemic – the winter season continues to bring signs that pressure is gradually beginning to ease.”
This story was originally published January 6, 2022 at 3:10 PM.
