The multifamily market has shifted over the last five years as demand has led to big construction booms and double-digit rent growth. Recently, multifamily construction has slowed down across Virginia but rent prices remain elevated. Let’s look at how rent has grown across the state and how the number of bedrooms impacts asking prices across local markets.

In Virginia, asking rent has been climbing with the price of a unit at $1,839 in the second quarter of 2025, up 2.6% from a year ago and 26.6% from 2019. At the metro level, Northern Virginia had the highest asking rent per unit in the state at $2,331, up 2.4% from the year prior. Rent prices also grew in Charlottesville with units costing $1,852 in the second quarter, 4.6% higher than Q2 2024. Although Harrisonburg had lower prices compared to several other markets, it saw the biggest year-over-year gain in asking rent at 5.1%, almost double the state’s rate.

Asking rents went up across all local markets, but price growth varied when looking at the number of bedrooms in these areas. Charlottesville experienced the sharpest increase in asking rents with the cost of a one-bedroom unit going from $1,565 to $1,661 in the second quarter of 2025, 6.1% higher compared to a year earlier. Prices for one-bedroom units in Harrisonburg and Hampton Roads also experienced significant gains in rent this quarter. Richmond, one of the state’s biggest markets, saw the smallest increase in asking rents with a one-bedroom costing 1.9% more than the year before.

Units with two bedrooms also saw price rise over the last year, particularly in small to mid-size markets. Rent grew the most in Harrisonburg with a two-bedroom unit costing $1,427 this quarter, 6.9% higher than last year, and well above the state’s rate at 2.5%. Charlottesville, Blacksburg, and Winchester also experienced sharp gains in asking rent prices during the second quarter. The trend of smaller market rent growth was also found in three-bedroom rentals. In Winchester, a unit with three bedrooms cost $2,188 in Q2 2025, up 4.9% from the year prior and 2.1 percentage points higher than the state’s rate. Lynchburg had the lowest asking rent and growth across the state, followed by Richmond and Blacksburg.

For more information on housing, demographic, and economic trends in Virginia, be sure to check out Virginia REALTORS^® other Economic Insights blogs.