April Rental Activity Report: Atlanta Is the Most In-Demand City, Manhattan Enters Top 5

April 27, 2023

RentCafe is releasing a brand new rental activity report that shows which cities renters are planning to move into this month, based on millions of interactions on RentCafe.com.

For this ranking, we took into account the number of available apartments each month in a city and how many renters are searching for rentals there now compared to one year ago. To measure renters’ intent, we also factored in the number of saved personalized searches and the number of apartments added to favorites.

Here are the stats for April, to help renters stay ahead of their game:

Atlanta is the most sought-after city, with the highest search activity this month. Apartment hunters in Atlanta added twice as many listings to their favorites lists compared to this time last year.
Apartment listings in Kansas City, MO, and Albuquerque, NM, came in second and third place, according to our listings activity data. They climbed +18 positions and +27, respectively, compared to last month, thanks to the highest page views on properties.
Detroit landed in fourth place with the highest climb in rankings from March, rising by a whopping 84 spots. Minneapolis (11th place), Milwaukee (24th place) and Indianapolis (30th place) are the other newcomers in the Top 30 most searched renting cities this month.
Manhattan completed the top five, maintaining its position on the top compared to the first month of spring. The big comeback as a top favorite for renters is driven by a quick rise in the number of apartments saved to favorites on Rentcafe.com: eight times more than one year ago.
Big cities like Philly, Boston and Chicago are seeing a surge in rental activity, with more favorites, saved searches and high demand resulting in fewer listings and decreased availability. Northeastern cities are popular with renters, claiming five spots on the top 30 list.