Timing

When is a lease
cheapest to sign?

Rent is not flat across the year. Summer is moving season, so demand and asking rents peak; winter is when landlords have empty units and less leverage. This measures how large that swing actually is where you are looking, and whether it is big enough to be worth planning around.

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Rent through the calendar year

How much each month costs relative to that year's own average, after the long-term trend is removed. Bars below the line are months when rent runs cheaper than the year's average; bars above it are the expensive months.

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The last six years

Actual monthly rent, not seasonally adjusted. The seasonal wiggle above rides on top of this trend, and in most places the trend is much larger than the wiggle. That is the honest headline of this page.

Where timing matters most

Counties with the largest swing between their cheapest and dearest month. A big swing usually means a market dominated by one moving season: a university town, or somewhere with a short summer.