Arbor’s Single-Family Rental Investment Trends Report Q1 2026, developed in partnership with Chandan Economics, spotlights how market shifts, including the rising cost of living and historically high build-to-rent activity, have fueled record rental household growth.

Multifamily permitting trends indicate continued national stability amid local recalibration. Across the country, issuances were steady, rising just 2.6% in 2025. At the metropolitan level, trends diverged sharply, with some markets accelerating and others pulling back. Per-capita leaders continued to cluster around high-growth Sun Belt and regional hubs, while year-over-year market-level fluctuations suggest that more pipelines have become increasingly selective and, in some cases, more concentrated in large-scale projects.

The small multifamily sector entered 2026 on a strong note, even as lending conditions remained shaped by persistently high interest rates and regulatory uncertainties.

Despite a national slowdown, population growth remained concentrated in a small group of states in 2025, where strong net domestic migration inflows, economic opportunity, and in some cases elevated birth rates drove the annual increases. Overall, 14 states had an annual population growth rate above 0.75%, while 12 states had less than 0.1%, according to a Chandan Economics analysis of the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2024 American Community Survey.

Out of the 75 largest U.S. metropolitan areas, occupancy rates for all types of rental properties, including multifamily and single-family rentals (SFR), remained exceptionally high in 2025.

National rent growth in the single-family rental (SFR) sector remained strong and consistent in 2025 as market-level pricing momentum was broad-based and robust, according to an analysis of newly released data from the Zillow Observed Rent Index. Year-end annual rent gains averaged 2.9%, down from 4.1% in 2024, marking the most modest increase since 2015. But even as the intensity of SFR rent growth abated last year, its reach was extensive, with 98 of the 100 largest markets posting year-over-year gains.