12 US cities with deals on cheap apartments as the rental market chills before the winter

• Apartment prices didn't move much in November, but they may slide in early 2025.
• Landlords tend to cut prices during the winter, and some are even giving unusual perks.
• Here are 12 cities where rent is affordable and on the decline.

Fewer people are moving during a seasonally slow stretch in the rental market, but those who are looking for a new apartment soon may be in luck.

Rent was flat or down across the US in November, a recent report from real-estate site Zumper found. The cost of one-bedroom apartments was little changed for a fourth straight month at $1,534, while two-bedroom setups were modestly cheaper, down 0.4% from October at $1,902.

These findings suggest that the long-standing stalemate on price between landlords and tenants is dragging on, though the path of least resistance may be lower later in the coming months.

"Most renters who were planning to move this year have already done so, and property owners tend to price down units to fill vacancies before the holidays," Zumper's team wrote in the report.

So, while softer demand and limited apartment supply have offset each other, property managers hoping to be fully booked may have to cut prices or get creative with concessions. One such perk — unusual as it may sound — is free groceries for a year, Zumper researchers noted.

"We anticipate that national rents will continue to see modest declines through the rest of this year and likely into the beginning of next year as well," Zumper CEO Anthemos Georgiades said in a statement for the report.

Even if renters score savings this winter, apartment prices remain 2.3% to 2.5% higher than they were a year ago, according to Zumper. However, that's still below the official inflation rate of 2.6% and well under the 4.9% jump in the shelter price index.

If price growth continues to fade next year, interest rates should tick down, and mortgage rates would follow suit. That would be a boon for homebuyers, though renters could also benefit since more people buying houses would likely mean less intense competition for apartments.

"Easing inflationary pressures could drive further declines to national rent prices and pave the way for additional interest rate cuts by the Federal Reserve," Zumper researchers wrote.

12 cities with attractively priced apartments

Although the national rate for one-bedroom rent didn't budge this month, there are a dozen midsize or large US cities where apartments are reasonably priced and heading down.

Below are the 12 cities where rent was at least $250 cheaper than the national median price of $1,534 in November and less expensive than 12 months ago. Along with each market are its year-over-year and month-over-month rent changes and its median rent, the savings compared to the national median, and its rank among the 100 top US real-estate markets.