{"id":70939,"date":"2025-12-26T14:45:08","date_gmt":"2025-12-26T14:45:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/70939\/"},"modified":"2025-12-26T14:45:08","modified_gmt":"2025-12-26T14:45:08","slug":"lehigh-valleys-rental-market-nearly-tops-new-list-of-most-competitive-nationwide","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/70939\/","title":{"rendered":"Lehigh Valley\u2019s rental market nearly tops new list of most competitive nationwide"},"content":{"rendered":"

Those on the hunt for an apartment in the Lehigh Valley are having a harder time right now than almost any other market in the nation, according to a new analysis from RentCafe.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Lehigh Valley secured the second spot<\/a> nationally among small metros with a Rental Competitiveness Index score of 90.6. Another Pennsylvania market, Harrisburg, followed close behind at third place with an RCI score of 88.2. <\/p>\n

Fayetteville, Arkansas topped the list of small metros with an RCI score of 92.4.<\/p>\n

The analysis examined 139 of the largest U.S. markets using five key measures: vacancy duration, occupancy rates, applicants per available unit, lease renewal rates, and new apartment supply.<\/p>\n

The national RCI score reached 75.2 in 2025, indicating that apartment hunting grew more challenging compared to the previous year\u2019s score of 74.4.<\/p>\n

In Lehigh Valley, competition remains intense despite a modest supply increase of 2.58%, up from 2.44% in 2024. The RentCafe.com analysis says the region is drawing commuters, remote workers, and residents from New Jersey and New York seeking more affordable housing options.<\/p>\n

It also notes the area\u2019s colleges, including Lehigh University, add pressure to the rental market as students compete with young professionals and families for off-campus housing when campus accommodations reach capacity.<\/p>\n

The tight supply keeps occupancy at 96.2%, with nearly 80% of renters choosing to renew their leases, slightly below last year\u2019s 80.7%. Available apartments fill within an average of 40 days and attract approximately 15 applicants each \u2014 the highest number among small metros in the analysis.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Those on the hunt for an apartment in the Lehigh Valley are having a harder time right now…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":70940,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[119,121,120,37292],"class_list":{"0":"post-70939","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-allentown","8":"tag-allentown","9":"tag-allentown-headlines","10":"tag-allentown-news","11":"tag-processedbyclaro"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70939","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=70939"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70939\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/70940"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=70939"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=70939"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=70939"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}