In some of the country’s most expensive cities, rent prices are starting to do something unexpected

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In cities like Seattle, the rent has indeed gotten too damn high — so high, in fact, that prices have flattened.

Rent prices in Seattle, the original home of Amazon














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increased by just 0.3% in October — down from nearly 4% a year ago, according to a new report released by global real-estate data firm CoreLogic














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That represents the slowest pace of rent growth for Seattle since May 2010.

“While employment growth helps feed rent growth, this relationship doesn’t always hold up, especially for cities with very high rents,” said Molly Boesel, principal economist at CoreLogic. “Employment growth in Seattle this October was more than double that of the U.S., but rent growth during the same time period was weak.”

Of the 20 metro areas that CoreLogic analyzed in its monthly “Single-Family Rent Index” report, Seattle already has some of the highest rent prices, which Boesel said “suggests there is a limit to how much rents can increase.” The estimated median rent for all types of rental units in Seattle, according to Zillow























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was $2,173 as of October.

CoreLogic’s report examined prices for single-family rentals only, excluding multifamily apartment buildings and condos.

Read more: Why Amazon’s ‘HQ2s’ won’t create two more Seattles

Seattle wasn’t the only city to witness a slowdown in rent price appreciation. Rent price growth was also sluggish in Atlanta, Charlotte, N.C., Miami and San Diego. The estimated median rent for all types of rental units in San Diego was $2,547 according to Zillow, much higher than the median rents in Atlanta ($1,397), Charlotte ($1,296) and Miami ($1,859).

Nationwide, there were also signs of a cooling property market. Rental growth continued to slow. Rent prices were up 3% year-over-year in October, which is down from the all-time peak of 4.2% rent growth set in February 2016.

In particular, prices for high-end rentals have slowed substantially over the year. And while rental growth was more pronounced for low-end rentals, that segment of the market is still seeing weaker growth than it did a year ago.

But some cities are still seeing rapid rent growth. Las Vegas posted the highest increase in single-family rents from a year ago, at 6.6%, followed by Phoenix (6.4%) and Orlando, Fla. (5.3%). According to Zillow, the median rent in Las Vegas was $1,312 in October, which was very similar to the median rents found in Phoenix ($1,361) and Orlando ($1,454).



Source : MTV