RentCafe: Washington, D.C., Most Active for Rental Activity in Q1

(A busy street in Washington, D.C., courtesy of Kelly/pexels.com)

RentCafe, Santa Barbara, Calif., released its new Renter Engagement Tracker, finding that Washington D.C., got the most engagement on its site through Q1 2025.

RentCafe compiles its new quarterly Renter Engagement Tracker with metrics including the availability of apartments, listing views, apartments saved as favorites and saved personalized searches for each city.

Washington, D.C., topped the list in part due to an 18% uptick in favorited listings and a 13% drop in saved searches, showing that apartment hunters are moving quickly.

No. 2 is Cincinnati, after climbing nine spots year-over-year. Kansas City, Mo., at No. 3, also saw a jump, climbing 12 spots in the past year.

Next are No. 4, Atlanta, and No. 5, Chicago. And rounding out the top 10 are Minneapolis, Columbus, Ohio, Los Angeles, Cleveland and St. Paul, Minn.

Looking regionally, the South is the most in-demand, with half of the top 30. The Midwest is next, at 10 spots, followed by the West at four. The Northeast sees only one spot in the top 30.

However, the Midwest dominates the top 10, with seven of those spots.

Nine new cities appeared on the most recent top 30 list, led by Columbus, Ohio, which took the No. 7 spot after shooting 34 spots up the list. Las Vegas is also a newcomer, up by 88 spots to No. 12.

Grand Rapids, Mich., ascended 17 spots to No. 18. Tampa, Fla., grew 13 spots to No. 21.

Also new to the top 30 are Augusta, Ga., Sacramento, Calif., Fort Lauderdale, Fla., Columbus, Ga., and Knoxville, Tenn.