Redmond Rental Market: Q1 2026

Prepared by Legacy Property Management  |  Report Date: April 3, 2026  |  Data Period: January–March 2026

Redmond’s single-family rental market is telling two stories at once this quarter. On the rent side, SFH rents declined 5.8% year-over-year, landing at an average of $2,350/month as of April 1. That’s a meaningful pullback, $145/month less than a year ago, and another $67 drop from just last quarter.

But the operational side tells a more balanced story. SFH properties are leasing in an average of 71 days, actually outpacing multifamily absorption (79.5 days). With only 34 single-family rentals listed on Zillow as of early April, supply isn’t overwhelming. Tenants are still leasing. They’re just doing it at lower price points than a year ago.

The takeaway: this is a market repricing, not a market in distress. Rents are correcting from pandemic-era highs, but well-priced properties are finding tenants within a reasonable timeframe. Meanwhile, the construction pipeline has contracted sharply (permits down 28% year-over-year), which suggests today’s softness may be setting the stage for tighter conditions later.

Redmond’s broader fundamentals remain solid. The city’s population continues to grow at roughly 2% annually (up to an estimated 38,200 as of mid-2025), and the Bend-Redmond MSA ranked #4 nationally among small metros in the Milken Institute’s 2026 Best-Performing Cities report for the second consecutive year. The economic engine is still running; rents are simply recalibrating to where the market wants them.

SFH Rents: The Quarter-Over-Quarter Story

Two consecutive quarters of decline tell a clearer story than any single data point. SFH rents have fallen roughly $150 over twelve months, and the trajectory hasn’t yet shown signs of flattening.

What makes this notable is that Oregon’s 2026 rent cap allows increases up to 9.5% for properties 15 years or older. The market isn’t anywhere close to testing that ceiling. This softness is entirely demand-driven, not regulatory.

Nationally, the single-family rental sector is tracking a similar pattern. According to CoreLogic’s Single-Family Rent Index, SFH rent growth nationwide slowed to just 1.2% annually by December 2025, with 18 of the 50 largest metros posting outright declines. Redmond’s 5.8% drop is steeper than the national average, reflecting the outsized pandemic-era run-up this market experienced. Bend-area rents surged more than 60% during the 2021-2022 migration wave, so a meaningful correction was inevitable once supply caught up.

For broader context, Redmond home values have followed a similar trajectory. Zillow’s Home Value Index puts the typical Redmond home at roughly $501,000, down about 5.6% year-over-year. Both the sales market and the rental market are adjusting after years of rapid appreciation, and both buyers and renters now have more options than they’ve had in recent memory.

The Divergence: SFH Outpaces Multifamily

Given the rent declines, you might expect SFH properties to be sitting vacant for months. They’re not. At 71 days on market, SFH is actually absorbing faster than multifamily (79.5 days). That’s a meaningful signal: while rents are adjusting downward, absorption is healthy. Tenants are still choosing single-family homes, and they’re making decisions in a reasonable timeframe.

The 71-day figure suggests that SFH pricing is finding its market. Properties listed at competitive rates are leasing without excessive vacancy exposure. That said, the asking-vs-in-place rent inversion (more on that below) suggests that this reasonable absorption is partly a result of landlords adjusting expectations. The market is rewarding competitive pricing with reasonable lease-up times.

Market Health: Stable Velocity, Softening Occupancy

Exact SFH vacancy rates are harder to pin down than multifamily (we don’t have a clean total-inventory denominator for single-family rentals), but the indicators paint a consistent picture: 34 SFH rentals listed on Zillow, 113 unleased units in the broader database, and 117 leases signed in the prior 30 days. The estimated SFH vacancy range sits at 3.0-4.5%.

For national context, the single-family rental vacancy rate was 5.7% in 2024 nationally, and the western U.S. ran at 5.7% as of mid-2025. Redmond’s estimated 3.0-4.5% for SFH suggests the local single-family segment remains tighter than both national and regional benchmarks, even amid the rent correction. The adjustment is happening at the price level, not the occupancy level.

The multifamily side tells a different story. Occupancy dropped from 95.5% in Q4 2025 to 93.4% in Q1 2026, a 1.6 percentage point decline in a single quarter. Vacancy at 6.6% now sits above the 5% threshold most operators consider “healthy.” This matters for SFH landlords because multifamily softness creates competitive pressure. When apartment communities start offering concessions (and some Redmond properties are advertising one month free), it pulls price-sensitive renters out of the SFH pool.

The Retention Warning: The $46 Inversion

This is one of the most telling metrics in the current data. When asking rents fall below what current tenants are paying, landlords listing new vacancies are pricing lower than existing lease rates to compete for tenants. It also means current tenants renewing at older, higher rates have real leverage to negotiate at renewal time.

On the multifamily side, the dynamic is reversed. Asking rents ($1,823) sit above in-place rents ($1,778) by $45. Multifamily operators are still testing higher pricing on new leases, but the 0.6% quarterly decline in asking rents shows they’re pulling back. Both segments are feeling price resistance. The difference is that SFH landlords have already adjusted (hence the healthier 71-day absorption), while multifamily operators are still in the process of recalibrating.

The Ripple Effect: Cross-Market Competition

The softening multifamily market creates a ripple that reaches directly into the single-family rental segment. With multifamily occupancy dropping to 93.4% and operators advertising aggressive concessions including one month free, the premium a renter pays for a house and yard becomes harder to justify for margin-conscious tenants. Entry-level SFH rentals are especially exposed to this competitive pull.

Even with only 34 active SFH listings, landlords must price defensively. Your immediate competition isn’t just other houses; it’s the aggressively discounted luxury apartment down the street. National data backs this up. In markets where multifamily vacancy has spiked above 6%, single-family rent growth has softened even where SFH supply remains tight.

The Catalyst: A 28% Supply Pipeline Collapse

Here’s where the story takes a more optimistic turn for landlords willing to ride out the current cycle. Total permits are down 28% year-over-year. Only 374 units were permitted in the trailing 12 months through December 2025, representing just 2.8% of Redmond’s approximately 13,400-household base. For a city growing at roughly 2% annually, that’s below the rate needed to keep pace with new household formation.

This pattern mirrors what’s happening statewide. With construction debt running at 6.5–7%+, projects that penciled at 4% in 2021 no longer work financially. Statewide, Multifamily NW reports that rental housing construction has slowed to roughly 4,250 units under construction, with further declines expected through 2026.

The units being delivered now (permitted in 2024-2025) are contributing to today’s softness. But the dramatically reduced pipeline means supply will tighten again by late 2026 or early 2027. Landlords pricing competitively today are positioning their properties for a potentially stronger market in 12-18 months.

The Employment Backdrop

The local employment picture adds useful context to the rent correction. Deschutes County’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate closed 2025 at 4.9%, up from 4.1% a year earlier. That’s the highest it’s been since 2016 (outside the pandemic), and it sits 1.6 percentage points above the county’s pre-pandemic record low of 3.3%. The Bend MSA ended the year at 5.0%.

Job losses late in 2025 were concentrated in professional and business services, construction, and leisure and hospitality, which are the sectors most closely tied to rental demand in the single-family segment. When professionals and tradespeople face uncertainty, they negotiate harder on rent and take longer to commit.

The longer-term employment picture remains strong, though. The Bend-Redmond MSA ranked 14th nationally in five-year job growth, 5th in five-year wage growth, and saw a 2.4% employment increase from mid-2024 to mid-2025. BASX Solutions, now Redmond’s largest private employer, nearly doubled its headcount from 528 employees in 2023 to over 1,000 in 2025. The labor market is cooling from an unsustainable pace, not contracting.

The Action Window: Landlord Playbook

The rent adjustment is real, but the market is functional. At 71 days on market and only 34 active listings, this isn’t a market where properties are sitting empty for months. It’s a market where rents have come down and tenants are responding. Landlords who price to today’s market are leasing within a normal timeframe. Those anchoring to 2025 rates will face longer and more expensive vacancies.

The Action Window: Investor Playbook

The Trajectory: 2026–2027 Outlook

Spring and summer typically bring stronger leasing activity, and the improving March data across both segments suggests seasonal momentum is building. Statewide, Oregon added 2,000 jobs in January 2026, and if that pattern carries forward locally, it should provide incremental support to rental demand.

Key metrics to watch next quarter: whether SFH days on market hold steady or improve; Q1 2026 permit data (expected to confirm continued pipeline contraction); whether multifamily occupancy stabilizes near 93-94% or continues weakening; and whether the SFH asking-vs-in-place rent inversion begins to close, which would signal a floor.