Single-Family Rents Are Increasing Faster than Multifamily Rents

Nationally, renting a single-family home instead of a multifamily unit is more affordable. However, single-family rental prices are now appreciating faster annually, 2.1 percent, than multifamily prices, 1.5 percent.

Looking at median multifamily and single-family rents, the most expensive markets for both are in San Jose, California, and San Francisco. In San Jose, median multifamily monthly rent is $3,168 and the median for single-family is $3,618. In San Francisco, median single-family rent is $3,494, while multifamily median rent is $3,009, per Zillow. While nationally, it's cheaper to rent a single-family home, price differences may depend on the local housing market conditions.

It turns out that 45 percent of renters consider renting single-family homes, according to the Zillow Group Consumer Housing Trends Report 2017. Rents for single-family homes are less expensive ($1,420 in February) than rents in larger, more traditional multifamily buildings ($1,563). The difference makes sense given that many multifamily units are in urban areas, where rents tend to be pricier ... Looked at from another angle, 57.1 percent of urban rental listings on Zillow in February were for multifamily units.

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