The 2025 rental season is off to a tighter start than last year. In Phoenix, despite a robust influx of newly built apartments, more renters in Phoenix decided to renew their lease, keeping the competition for each vacant unit tight.

Here’s what renters should know:

• Tough competition: Each vacant apartment in Phoenix attracts 8 applicants.

• Limited options: 59.8% of apartment dwellers in Phoenix renewed their leases — that’s almost 2% more than last year.

• Decision time: Vacant apartments in Phoenix typically get occupied within 49 days (2 two days longer than last summer), indicating that renters are having a harder time finding a place to stay.

• Insufficient new construction: The housing supply increased by 1.53% in recent months, but it did little to ease the occupancy pressure, with the rate dropping only slightly (by 0.40%) to 92% at the start of the rental season.

Just how hot is Phoenix right now? Let’s compare the five key metrics of competitiveness to some of the other 138 markets analyzed.

• In the West, competition among renters has intensified in Salt Lake City, UT, where each vacant unit gets 9 applications — up from 7 last summer. In contrast, Denver, CO, has seen a drop in rental competition, with 7 applicants per vacant apartment compared to 9 last summer.

• Las Vegas also saw its lease renewal rate climb significantly by 2.6% to 68.1%. Coupled with a high occupancy rate and slow construction, Sin City is the most competitive large market in the West this rental season. 

• Smaller rental markets in the region are also sizzling hot. Renters in Boise, ID, now face competition from 14 other applicants for a single apartment — that’s 5 more than one year ago. Similarly, competition has increased in Albuquerque, NM, and Reno, NV, with 11 and 10 renters vying for the same apartment, respectively — both up by 2 applicants from last year.

• Nationwide, Miami remains the hottest rental market with the fiercest competition per vacant unit — averaging 21 applicants. Apartments fly off the market in just 36 days, while occupancy and lease renewal rates remain sky-high.

• Some of the markets that have become red-hot this summer are Broward County, FL; Chicago; Manhattan, NY; Pittsburgh; and Houston. Lease renewal rates in these metros have jumped significantly (by as much as 4.3%), while new apartment construction has slowed. Renters here have to make faster decisions as units are rented out quicker than they were last summer.  – more at azbigmedia.com