Father’s Day: Projects you can do with your kids
It’s never too early to share your home skills with your little ones. These simple projects make learning fun for kids.
After seven years of work and investing in over $18 million, Harbour Village, a new affordable residential development in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, officially opened its doors in January.
The 40-unit rental development came together thanks to Safe Harbor, a Carlisle-based residential nonprofit.
By the time Safe Harbor began screening for future tenants, there had been over 400 applications, said Scott Shell, the group’s longtime president and CEO.
“And I still get calls every day,” he told USA Today.
The median apartment rent in Carlisle was $1,259 in May. According to an Apartment List Data’s USA Today analysis, this is one of the fastest areas with rental prices that month, up 6% from a year ago.
Shewell wasn’t surprised. He said the region has seen a huge hit growth over the past few years, and even well-meaning local governments committed to affordable housing have been unable to keep up with demand.
According to the US Census Bureau, the population of Carlisle has grown by nearly 12% since 2020.
In May, Manhattan, Kansas led other metros as the fastest growing market for rental prices. On Metro, rent prices have risen by 14% since the same month last year. Then came Abilene, Texas. Grand Forks, North Dakota Minnesota and Shreveport Boscher City, Louisiana.
Recent data shows rental prices in most metro areas are leveling, but for millions of renters, typical rents remain dramatically higher than before the start of the Covid-19 pandemic.
A USA Today analysis of apartment list data for the 202 Metro area found that average monthly rents for January and May were significantly higher at 94% of the Metro compared to the same period in 2019.
Except for just a handful who stayed roughly the same as pre-pandemic levels, data showed prices rose by an average of 31%.
The pandemic has overcharged rental markets, shuffled populations, cities closed, and people started working from home, breaking old patterns of stable growth. After a short drop in rental prices, prices rebounded aggressively, reaching record highs before flattening in late 2022.
This impact is felt throughout, from Manhattan in New York City to Manhattan in Kansas.
Apartment list data shows that in May 2025 the new levels remained stable.
Census data shows that around 25% of U.S. renters are renters, so in 2023 they spent more than half of their income on rent. That figure was 22% in 2019.
This tension was felt by the families with broader inflation of food, gas and energy at these high prices. It charted as the best issue in the 2024 presidential election.
Housing market experts say the rental market may have settled into a new baseline. This means that prices may not return to those from 2019.
Rob Warnock, a senior researcher at the apartment list, said pre-pandemic price reversals were unlikely.
“What’s more realistic than a falling rent is that rent prices remain stable where income can keep up,” Warnock said.
For now, two trends in the market have emerged to maintain rental prices at a stable level. There is a slower rental demand and a recent construction frenzy.
“The past year has actually been defined as a rather low demand in the rental market, with many new home constructions built over the past three years,” Warnock said. “The result is that what we’re seeing is that even if prices aren’t diminished, they’re almost flat.”
Race to build
Only a handful of metros have seen rent prices fall in the past year. Of these, the Boseman, Montana, is worth noting. There, people flocked during the pandemic due to low cost and outdoor space while working remotely.
“(It) encouraged everyone’s decisions to move to towns like Bozeman, and there’s a lot of fantasy around it,” said Casey Rose, advisor to the Sterling Commercial Real Estate Advisor.
Amid increasing demand for the Montana Mountain Metro, developers began building apartments. Many of the projects were offered simultaneously, and as a result, Rose said the vacancy rate was very low.
Compared to last year, rents at Bozeman have fallen by about 10%, the second-largest decline, according to apartment list data.
However, the actual price could be masked by incentives such as offering two months of free rent or free iPads, TV or Ski Pass, Rose said.
A similar pattern is taking place in Austin, with rental prices down 6.4% compared to a year ago.
Real Estate Manager and third-generation Austin resident Stacey Austin, saw the city flooding with pandemic digital nomads, but builders continued to build new developments and created supply addiction that kept rental prices down.
Ausanne, who manages dozens of properties, said the landlord she works for is stable and she cuts the price by $50 a month. He said maintaining good tenants is worth it, especially in a market where there is more demand than demand.
“The market continued to accelerate and the bubble burst,” Ausanne said. “We really feel that this year.”
Experts raised concerns that prices could rise due to changes in the political landscape, which saw strict tariff policies and crackdowns on immigrants, which form a large part of the construction workforce.
Housing inflation has fallen from its peak of over 8% in early 2023, but costs have not fallen as quickly as overall inflation. Rental inflation rate was 3.8% in May, according to data from the Consumer Price Index released by the Labor Bureau on Wednesday. This is the smallest increase in the year since January 2022. This slowdown reflects the reduction in rents for new leases at the rates of existing tenants. While the overall rise in consumer prices in May was modest, housing costs are the biggest contributor to inflation, accounting for 35% of all price increases.