More renter renewals in 2025 tightened competition in U.S. markets 

More renters stayed put in 2025, tightening competition in markets across the country. 

Sixty-three percent of tenants renewed their rental agreements in 2024, up from 62.2 percent in 2024, according to RentCafe’s year-end multifamily report.

However, the U.S. multifamily occupancy rate dipped to 93.3 percent from 93.6 percent as more than half a million apartments came online over the past year. There were 2.83 percent more apartments for rent in 2025 compared to 2024, but this year there were still nine renters — the same number as last year — vying for every vacant apartment.

The Northeast stood out as the most competitive rental region in the country, according to RentCafe’s analysis. The region was followed by the Midwest and Florida.

Miami, meanwhile, was again deemed the most competitive top market over the past year, holding on to its title from the summer. The average number of days an apartment stayed empty in the Magic City was 33 days — the second-lowest after Chicago, where this figure was 32.

Miami’s occupancy rate is the highest among the country’s top markets, coming in at 96.4 percent. Apartments also have the greatest number of renters — 19 — vying for them.

Chicago and the suburban Chicago area followed Miami as the second and third-most competitive markets, per RentCafe’s analysis. The vacancy rates in those markets were 95.1 percent and 95.5 percent, respectively.

Manhattan was the country’s fourth-most competitive rental market, and Brooklyn placed 21st on the ranking. Rental competition is growing in Queens, where the average number of vacant days went from 49 in 2024 to 47 this year, and the borough’s occupancy rate ticked up to 94.7 percent from 93.6 percent last year.

There are signs, however, that the U.S. apartment market is softening. Rents slid in 28 of the top 30 markets in October, compared to the same time last year, according to another multifamily market report from Yardi Matrix, a sister company of RentCafe.