- Apartment List’s new free dataset shows 31.3% of U.S. multifamily properties advertised an offer worth a month’s rent or more in September 2026, up 5.9 points year over year.
- Austin leads at 57.4%, followed by Henderson, San Antonio and Charlotte at roughly 57%, while San Francisco (1.2%) and Chicago (1.1%) sit at the bottom as rents rise.
- Concession rates track soft markets: with national vacancy at 7% and rents down 4% from the mid-2022 peak, discounts add to the pressure on net effective rents.
Apartment List launched a free Concession Rates dataset, and the first read shows 31.3% of U.S. multifamily properties advertising at least a month of free rent.
That is up 5.9 points from 25.4% in September 2025.
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How It Defines a Concession
Apartment List counts any offer worth at least a month’s rent. That covers four-plus free weeks, half off for two months or longer, or a one-time credit above the property’s median rent.
Its model scans listing text for tens of thousands of offers a day. Each month’s rate is the portion of a market’s properties with such an offer live.
A Cold Rental Market
National vacancy is 7% as of September 2026, and rents sit 4% under the mid-2022 high. Heavy construction and slower household formation tipped leverage toward renters.
Concessions can push net effective rent below the listed price, which deepens the declines in Apartment List’s rent index.
Patterns in the Data
Offers thin out on the 1st, the busiest lease-start day, then reappear as month-end nears and managers push to fill units.
They also ease in summer and climb in winter, and the long-run trend is up after three-plus years of cooling.
Soft Markets vs. Hot Ones
Austin tops the 50-city list at 57.4%, with Henderson at 57.0%, San Antonio at 56.8% and Charlotte at 56.7%. San Antonio rents have fallen three years running, at times down 5.0% annualized.
San Francisco is the mirror image. Vacancy under 3% and rent growth above 25% have pushed its concession rate down to 1.2%. Chicago is lowest at 1.1% and Virginia Beach is next at 3.9%.
Texas stress is visible in lending too. Trepp found that 25.3% of performing Texas floating-rate apartment loans report a DSCR below 1.0x.
Why It Matters
Apartment List’s number is far above RealPage’s, which CRE Daily covered when concession use fell to 14.5% of stabilized units in September. They measure different things: RealPage counts units, Apartment List counts properties offering at least a month’s value.
Both show owners leaning on incentives, and the property-level view shows where the squeeze is worst.
What’s Next
The data covers close to 400 states, counties, cities and metros, and is free to use with attribution. Expect it to become a new benchmark for operators and underwriters.
