Delaware County rents on average have risen at a different rate this past year than rents nationally, writes Janice Kai Chen, Rachel Lerman and Kate Rabinowitz for The Washington Post.

Rent prices nationally have jumped about 19 percent since 2019, but recent trends show that price increases are cooling off, with some prices even falling,

That doesn’t seem to be the case with Delaware County, rents, however.

Renters pay an average of $1,467 per month here in Delco, with rents up 27.1 percent since 2019.

They’ve gone up 2.8 percent since 2023, above the national average for the past year, which saw rents increase about 1 percent.

Half of the counties in the U.S. saw the smallest rent increases in more than three years between June 2023 to June 2024.

With homebuying out of reach because of high interest rates and low supply there has been an uptick in demand for rentals.

“A big generation of would-be first-time home buyers are renting first,” said Skylar Olsen, chief economist at Zillow.

Rental demand is also up as more people leave the family homes they went back to during the pandemic and get back into their own apartments.

Find out more Delaware County rents and the latest trends in rentals in The Washington Post.