Looking for an apartment in Lansing-Ann Arbor? You’re going to need more than good timing — because eight other people are likely eyeing the same place.
As the 2025 rental season heats up, Lansing-Ann Arbor is one of the country’s most competitive rental markets — placing 8th nationwide and 3rd in the Midwest, according to RentCafe.com’s newest Rental Competitiveness Report.
In this report, we measure how tough it is to secure an apartment across the nation using five key metrics, as highlighted below. But recently, we’ve taken it a step further, introducing another indicator: how long renters live in an apartment before moving out.
Lansing–Ann Arbor renters tend to stay put for 31 months, which is longer than both the regional (28 months) and national (29 months) averages.
Here’s what’s driving rental competition in Lansing-Ann Arbor at the start of the 2025 peak season:
On average, nine renters are competing for each available apartment.
Apartments are being rented out in 43 days, a relatively short window and two days faster than the national average.
At the same time, nearly 70% of renters are renewing their leases, limiting the number of units that become available.
New units accounting for just 0.32% of the housing stock, but this isn’t enough to meet the current demand.
The area’s occupancy rate stands at 95.3%. This is significantly higher than the national rate of 93%, leaving little room for new renters to enter the market.
Considering these factors, Lansing-Ann Arbor earned a Rental Competitiveness Index score of 80.6— significantly higher than both the Midwest average of 77 and the national rate of 74.6.
If you’re working on a local housing story and want more detailed comparisons or expert insight into what’s driving this competition, I’d be happy to connect you with one of our analysts or provide the full dataset.
For a deeper look, the report includes easy-to-read visuals and charts that track year-over-year changes in rental market competitiveness across the country:
https://www.rentcafe.com/blog/
