Report: KCMO Rent Prices Increase Amid Surge of Apartment Development

Posted February 13, 2024

Zillow released its January 2024 Rental Market Report, showing how rental prices have increased in Kansas City, and other major cities, despite apartment construction on the rise and cooling for economic growth in the nation.

Rents are up from year-ago levels in 47 of the 50 largest metro areas, according to the report. This includes Kansas City, Mo., which has an average rent price of around $1,400 and an increase of 6 percent year-over-year. Furthermore, the average salary needed to afford the rental market rate in KCMO is $56,100.

While the economic cooldown in the U.S. has brought softer growth to the rental market, the typical household’s income needed to rent “stabilized,” over the past year at 29 percent, down a percentage point from the record high set in June 2022.

Rent prices are up 3.4 percent year-over-year, an average of $1,958, according to the Zillow Observed Rent Index. However, this rate continues to be lower than the pre-pandemic level of approximately 4.1 percent.

The housing market has experienced a slowdown in single-family development, in favor of more multi-family options. As a result, in addition to larger barriers to entry to homeownership, single-family rent has increased 4.7 percent from last year, according to Zillow.

The report notes rent growth could be on the rise in the foreseeable future as younger generations enter the moving-age coupled with the surge in apartment construction projects.