During the first quarter of 2010, the average rent for an apartment in Tulsa has increased by $30 to $551 (an increase of 6%) according to Rentjungle.com, an apartment search and market research website.  Nationwide, average apartment rents were flat over the same period.
 
“The Tulsa market looks like it has turned the corner. In Q4, rents were down by 1%, so Q1’s increase of 6% is encouraging,” says Rentjungle.com CEO Jon Pastor.

Honolulu, Tulsa, Miami, Pittsburgh, Fort Worth, Dallas, and Boston all saw rent increases above 3% in the first quarter. The majority of cities were unchanged. Nashville, Fresno, Memphis, San Francisco, St. Paul, and Minneapolis however, all saw decreases in excess of 2%.
 
Nationwide, studio apartments saw the largest percentage increase in Q1, up 2% to $758 per month. One bedroom apartments were also in demand, up 1% to $959 per month. Larger apartments were generally flat to slightly decreasing in price.
 
“We are seeing some encouraging signs in the overall national rental market,” says Pastor.  “In the first quarter, rent nationwide was flat when compared to the fourth quarter of 2009, which is a reversal in what had been a negative trend. Rent in Q4, 2009 was down by approximately 3% from the prior quarter, so a flattening in Q1 2010 is an improvement.”
 
Rentjungle.com calculates these figures by analyzing over 1 million apartment ads a month. The goal of the site is to help users make more informed decisions.  More rent trend data is available at: http://www.rentjungle.com/rentdata/
 
“Trends in the apartment market appear to be following overall trends in consumer confidence,” said Rent Jungle co-founder Rick Ferris. “Renters who may have taken on roommates last year appear to be heading out on their own. They are starting with smaller apartments, as evidenced by the rent increase for studios and 1 bedrooms.”
 
Rentjungle.com, is the most comprehensive rental listing site on the web. It works much like other search engines in that it scours the Internet to amass apartment listings from a variety of sites.  Rentjungle.com employs innovative spidering technology that can detect both when new rentals come on the market and when rents for a particular property change. All of this data is analyzed and stored in order to keep users abreast of the latest happenings in the rental market. Trends can be tracked by city and by neighborhood, furthering the site’s value to users. Users can see searches on an easy, interactive map that links to satellite street views.