RentCafe: Washington, D.C., Tops Mid-Year Renter Engagement Tracker

(Image courtesy of Garrison Gao/pexels.com)

RentCafe, Santa Barbara, Calif., released its Renter Engagement Tracker for the first half of the year, finding that the nation’s capital topped the list.

RentCafe compiles its tracker based on interactions on its website, and considers factors such as availability of apartments, listing views, apartments saved as favorites and saved personalized searches. It’s now released as a quarterly edition.

Washington rose five spots year-over-year to come in at No. 1. It ranked first in saved searches, page views rose 5% and renters had 15% more listings to choose from.

Kansas City, Mo., jumped 70 spots compared with first-half 2024, with renters drawn to the city’s affordability, growing job market and revitalized downtown, RentCafe noted.

Cincinnati came in No. 3, climbing 10 spots and scoring points for livability, affordability and economic stability.

Minneapolis was No. 4, and Atlanta was No. 5. Rounding out the top 10 were Chicago, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Las Vegas and St. Paul, Minn.

Zooming out regionally, the South leads the way with 14 of the top 30 cities seeing high renter engagement. The Midwest has nine, the West six and the Northeast just one.

New cities make up half of the mid-year renter engagement tracker, RentCafe noted, led by the large jump by Kansas City.