The Triangle’s post-pandemic construction boom is paying off.

As new, amenity-rich Class A buildings hit the market, it’s putting pressure on Class B and C buildings to price competitively, experts say.

In some submarkets, rents are getting slashed by almost double digits, data shows.

In Raleigh, the median rent for one-bedroom apartments (the mid-point where half cost less and half cost more) stood at $1,290 in May, according to Zumper’s latest rent report. That’s down 9.8% from a year ago.

The median rent for two-bedroom apartments held steady at $1,560 in May and was down 2.5% from 2023.

Of 100 cities nationwide, Raleigh was the 57th most expensive for renters.

In Durham, the median rent for one-bedroom apartments was $1,420 in May. That’s down 9.6% from last year, Zumper found.

Two-bedroom units stood at $1,670 — a 7.2% drop. Durham ranked as the 43rd most expensive city.

(All six North Carolina cities in the rankings saw one-bedroom rents down annually. Winston-Salem had the largest decline of 11.9%.)

The national rent index saw both one and two-bedrooms increase 1.2% in April to medians of $1,504 and $1,865, respectively.

Post-pandemic construction boom

A post-pandemic construction boom saw some 10,922 apartments hit the Raleigh-Cary market in 2023.

Zumper estimates supply will jump over 50% across Durham and Raleigh this year.

There are 19 developments under construction in downtown Raleigh alone, according to the Downtown Raleigh Alliance’s first-quarter market report.

When completed, they will deliver 2,230 residential units, 410 hotel rooms, and 116,616 square feet of retail space.

Current move-in deals include one month free at The Signal at Seaborn Station in Raleigh and at The Ramsey on Pettigrew Street in Durham.

Construction continues on eight apartment buildings and four for-sale residential projects.

Downtown’s stabilized apartment occupancy rate is 94.1%. The “average effective rent” in downtown Raleigh — that’s the average rent over the length of the lease after factoring in any concessions or enticements — is 32.18 per square foot, or $1,808 per unit, the report said.

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