Report: NLR apartment rents most expensive in state

Apartments in North Little Rock are the state’s most expensive for renters, according to RentCafe.com’s March report.

The apartment listing website shows an average monthly rent of $814 for North Little Rock apartments, followed by apartments in Little Rock at an average monthly lease rate of $780. Conway apartments rent, on average, for $692 per month.

Those were the only three cities analyzed in the state by RentCafe, which studied cities with at least 2,000 apartments in more than 50 unit buildings.

The average rent in Arkansas’s largest cities is generally lower than the national average rent. The fastest growing rents in March were in Conway, where rental apartment prices increased by 2.2% over the year, $15 more per month. Little Rock apartments saw the second highest annual increase, jumping by 0.8%, $6 more expensive than the same month last year. The slowest rising rents were in North Little Rock, where prices grew by only 0.7% year-over-year.

Around the nation, RentCafe reported a 3.6% year-over-year change and an average rent reaching $1,426 a month in February.

To compile the national rent report, the website’s research team analyzed rent data across the 253 largest cities in the U.S., in large-scale apartment buildings with 50 or more units.