Despite a hot housing market, Indianapolis rents could stabilize in 2024

Indianapolis rental prices could stabilize despite a hot housing market, according to one Indiana University expert.

Indianapolis is projected to be among the top ten housing markets nationally in 2024 - but that isn’t expected to have a huge impact on rentals.

In Indianapolis, rental prices increased dramatically over the past couple of years - in some cases rising more than 13 percent year over year.

That rental market could stabilize this year. Associate Director of the Indiana University Center for Real Estate Studies Sara Coers said the hot housing market won’t necessarily bleed into the rental market.

“The thing that’s differentiating rental housing and for-sale housing right now is the supply race,” she said. “Supply is definitely coming on much stronger in the rental market. So we’re actually starting to see rental rates stabilize in some markets.”

Locally, Coers said that rent growth has been catching up with national rental markets - which partially explains some of the recent large jumps.

“We were way behind the rest of the country in terms of rental growth,” she said. “That’s why we’ve jumped so high, so far, so fast in the last few years with rents. We’ve been catching up to the game locally. I think that’s all stabilizing.”

Coers said that depending on the types of rental units some have been flat or even fallen.

Another factor that will keep rents stable in Indianapolis, according to Coers, is falling inflation.

Contact WBAA/WFYI reporter Benjamin Thorp at bthorp@wfyi.org.