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Chattanooga residential rents rise twice as fast as U.S. average

Staff Photo by Dave Flessner / The 1400 Chestnut apartments in downtown are advertising for new tenants. The average rental rate in Chattanooga is up nearly twice as much as the U.S. as a whole in the past year, according to a Zumper real estate study.
Staff Photo by Dave Flessner / The 1400 Chestnut apartments in downtown are advertising for new tenants. The average rental rate in Chattanooga is up nearly twice as much as the U.S. as a whole in the past year, according to a Zumper real estate study. Staff Photo by Dave Flessner / The 1400 Chestnut apartments in downtown are advertising for new tenants. The average rental rate in Chattanooga is up nearly twice as much as the U.S. as a whole in the past year, according to a Zumper real estate study.

By Dave Flessner 5 min read

The COVID-19 pandemic that kept more Chattanoogans in their homes in the past year has also boosted the cost of where they live.

Chattanooga residential rental rates rose nearly twice as fast as the national average in the past year, according to a new study of apartment rents by the online real estate website Zumper.

The average rent for a one-bedroom apartment in Chattanooga rose by 10% in the past year to $1,100 a month while the typical two-bedroom apartment unit in Chattanooga increased an average 12.7% to $1,150 per month, Zumper said.

Although rental rates in Chattanooga remained slightly below the average for the top 100 U.S. cities, the local increases in rent exceeded the national rise, which varied from 4.9% for a one-bedroom up to 6.5% for a two-bedroom unit.

“People are finding Chattanooga as a place to come and live and we’re getting a lot of people moving here, fortunately, or unfortunately depending upon your perspective,” said Robert Backer, president of the Greater Chattanooga Association of Realtors and the owner of several rented duplex residences. “There has also been a tremendous interest among investors wanting to buy into our rental market, often at much higher prices than what the former owners paid, and that has also tended to push up rental rates.”