CLAYMONT, DE — U.S. rental homes leased at their fastest spring pace since 2022 during the second quarter, even as average rents declined from a year earlier, suggesting lower pricing rather than strengthening demand helped accelerate turnover, according to data from leasing technology company ShowMojo.
Homes took an average of 32.76 days to lease during the quarter, while national rents fell 0.9% from a year earlier to $1,867, according to ShowMojo’s second-quarter residential leasing report.
The findings point to a market in which landlords are clearing available inventory more quickly without securing higher rents. ShowMojo characterized the trend as a market-clearing shift rather than a broad rental recovery.
Leasing activity accelerated across most of the U.S., though the Midwest recorded slower leasing compared with the prior year, according to the company.
Pricing at the time a property enters the market also had a substantial effect on how long units remained available. ShowMojo found incorrectly priced rentals took 51 to 58 days to lease across U.S. regions, compared with 24 to 29 days for units priced appropriately from the outset.
The Southeast recorded the largest disparity. Mispriced units there remained available for an average of 56 days, or 2.3 times the 24-day average for properties ShowMojo classified as correctly priced.
The report also found wide regional differences in the use of self-guided property tours. Such tours were more than twice as common in the South as in the North, a disparity ShowMojo linked to the South’s larger concentration of single-family rental properties.
Response times to prospective tenants remain another factor in leasing performance, according to the company. Nearly two-thirds of renter inquiries arrive during weeknights or weekends, ShowMojo Chief Executive Officer Vanessa Anderson said.
“Most renters lease with the first company that engages with them,” Anderson said, arguing that property managers need systems capable of responding outside conventional business hours.
ShowMojo’s quarterly analysis draws on data collected from more than 1.7 million leased units and 80 million prospective-renter leads over eight years.
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