How Rents Watch collects and compares rents

Who publishes this information?

Rents Watch publishes this site and its renter guides. We provide rent tracking and paid email alerts; we are not the building's leasing office. Each listing links to its source. For questions or corrections, contact contact@rents.watch with the page URL, unit, and the time you noticed the issue.

Our pricing page explains the free history window and paid features. Purchasing a plan does not change the rents reported.

Where do prices and availability come from?

We read selected buildings' public websites and leasing sources. The area directory and building directory distinguish tracked buildings from catalog pages where coverage has only been requested. This is a selected sample, not a census of apartments in a neighborhood.

A property check is an observation at a particular time. Scheduled checks can fail, return incomplete data, or encounter a source that changed. Use the last-observed time and coverage notes on each page; a tracked label does not promise that every unit was checked successfully today.

What do the rent tables measure?

The low, median, and high values summarize observed available apartments with a published price and a known bedroom count. The median is the middle price when sorted, or the average of the two middle prices for an even sample. Each row shows its sample size. Apartments missing a price or bedroom count can appear in availability totals without contributing to the bedroom table.

These are monthly asking rents as published by the source, not signed lease prices or an estimate of what every renter pays. A small sample can change substantially when one apartment enters or leaves it. We do not infer missing prices.

Are fees and concessions included?

A source may advertise a base rent or a rent reflecting a concession. We do not assume all sources use the same convention. Confirm the lease term, free-rent conditions, deposits, utilities, amenity charges, and other fees with the leasing office. A change in advertised rent is not proof that the total cost of a lease changed by the same amount.

How do we identify rent changes?

We compare observations of the same unit within its property's source. Floor-plan-only availability is not interchangeable with a named apartment. The price-reduction count describes currently available apartments with an observed reduction during the displayed comparison window; it does not count every past reduction or apartments that have since disappeared.

Newly observed means new to the usable observation record, not newly built or necessarily newly listed. No longer observed does not prove that an apartment was rented. A return after an absence is distinguished from the first observation when the record supports it.

What do gaps and comparison dates mean?

Comparisons use compatible successful observations. Missing or incomplete checks can create gaps; we do not treat a failed check as proof that a building has no apartments. The displayed observation date is not a guarantee that every building was checked simultaneously.

Read the effective comparison date: when the requested baseline is unavailable, the dashboard can use the earliest available point within its supported history. Coverage additions and removals can change inventory totals. Changes in a sample's median can also reflect different apartments, so they are not a same-apartment rent index.

How should I use the data?

Use the live rent observation report to understand the tracked sample, then open an area or building page to examine listings and sources. Verify the final offer directly before applying. Our rent-tracking guide explains how to keep a comparable record.