The rental property landscape is shifting beneath our feet. While short-term platforms like Airbnb and VRBO have dominated headlines for years and STRs have become the belle of the real estate investor ball, a quieter revolution is taking place: monthly rentals are rapidly becoming one of the fastest-growing segments in the U.S. housing market.
According to a new study from AirDNA and Furnished Finder, monthly rental demand more than doubled between 2019 and 2025, growing from 20 million nights to 46 million nights, a 136% increase. During that same period, short-term rental demand grew by just 52%. Monthly rentals now represent roughly 19% of all rental demand and generated $6.2 billion in revenue in 2025, up from $2.3 billion in 2019 – a 173% jump.
For landlords and real estate investors, this isn't just a trend. It's a fundamental shift in how Americans are choosing to live, work, and rent – and it presents a significant opportunity.
You can also read Furnished Finder's full report here.
What is a midterm rental?
Before diving into the data, let's clarify what we're talking about. A midterm rental (what many will call a monthly rental or month-to-month rental) typically refers to furnished housing rented for 30 days or longer, but often stopping short of a year. Unlike traditional long-term leases that lock tenants in for a full year or two, midterm rentals offer flexibility. They're longer than a vacation stay but shorter than a traditional lease, filling a critical gap in the housing market.
Midterm rentals cater to traveling professionals, healthcare workers, relocating families, digital nomads, insurance claim holders, and people in life transitions. They're not tourists; they're people who need a temporary home that feels like, well, home.
Why monthly rentals are exploding right now
The growth of monthly rentals isn't a pandemic blip. It reflects deeper structural changes in the economy and how people live.
Housing shortage and affordability constraints
The U.S. is experiencing a severe housing shortage. Renter households expanded 15% nationally between 2010 and 2023, outpacing 10% in homeowner growth. In 2024 alone, 848,000 new renter households were added compared to just 613,000 new homeowners. Renters are on the move too; Zillow reported 12 million rental moves in 2024, nearly triple the 4.2 million home sales.
Monthly rentals serve as a pressure-release valve in tight housing markets. They offer a furnished, attainable option for renters navigating affordability barriers or transitional life stages, and steady occupancy for property owners amid softening home-sale volumes.
Regulation and workforce mobility
Regulatory pressure on short-term rentals has reshaped the market. In markets like New York City, short-term rental demand took major hits following the 2023 enforcement of Local Law 18. After each regulatory event, monthly rental demand surged. By 2025, demand for monthly rentals in NYC was 85% higher than in 2019, while short-term stays declined sharply.
Meanwhile, monthly rental demand is weakest in leisure-oriented destination markets like coastal areas and mountain/lake towns. Instead, it's strongest in large urban centers where housing constraints, workforce mobility, healthcare systems, and corporate relocations drive demand.
Broad geographic distribution
Over half of all monthly rental demand is concentrated in major metro areas and their suburbs. Urban cores and surrounding suburbs account for roughly 50% of monthly rental activity, even though they represent only one-third of total rental demand across platforms. Places like Texas, Florida, California, and Illinois are seeing strong growth.
More than 20 U.S. cities outside New York and Los Angeles now generate over 500,000 monthly stay nights annually. Fast-growing markets with at least 100,000 monthly stay nights are recording compound annual growth rates exceeding 20%. These include state capitals, regional employment hubs, healthcare centers, and mid-sized metros like Austin, Phoenix, Houston, San Francisco, Dallas, Boston, and Denver.
Smaller but fast-scaling markets include places like Abilene TX, Santa Clara CA, Clarksville, TN, Jersey City and Hoboken, NJ, Boulder, CO, and Frisco, TX. These markets highlight that monthly rentals are expanding wherever work and housing pressure intersect, not just where tourists flock.
Who's renting monthly, and what do they want?
Monthly renters are not leisure travelers. According to Furnished Finder, the typical monthly renter includes:
- Business travelers (25% of tenant types) seeking proximity to workplaces, quiet spaces for working and sleeping, and dedicated parking
- Healthcare professionals (20%) prioritizing safety, flexible end dates, and proximity to hospitals
- Relocating families and insurance placements (30% combined) needing space, school proximity, and family-friendly neighborhoods
- Digital nomads and academics (20%) valuing reliable high-speed Wi-Fi, flexible lease terms, and proximity to universities or coworking spaces
The most commonly requested amenity? The ability to contact landlords directly. Over 1/3rd of Furnished Finder tenants seek to move in within one week of their booking inquiry. Average booking windows have decreased by 13% over the last year, dropping from 36 to 31 days. This reflects a demand for on-demand housing with minimal friction, and landlords should be prepared to be proactive in contacting their tenants if they venture into the midterm space.
What successful monthly rentals look like
The recipe for a great monthly rental is simple: think like a resident, operate like a host.
Home formats that work
Monthly rental demand skews smaller, favoring self-contained homes over large leisure-oriented properties. About 34% of monthly rental demand is for one-bedroom units, compared to 24% of short-term rental demand. Three- and four-bedroom homes make up a much smaller share of monthly stays.
Smaller units dominate monthly rentals for a reason; they meet the needs of mobile professionals and households in transition. With demand concentrated in large metro areas, renters care most about functionality, affordability, and location, not luxury amenities or impressive design.
Pricing that pencils
Monthly rentals are typically priced below short-term rentals in the same market, reflecting lower overhead from longer bookings, reduced operational intensity, and more predictable occupancy. As property size increases, the pricing gap between short-term and monthly rentals narrows sharply. For three-bedroom homes and up, monthly rental rates increasingly converge with short-term pricing, making larger units perform competitively as monthly rentals (even if they aren't in as high demand).
Furnished Finder's average national monthly rents show a clear mid-market profile:
- Room: $1,300
- Studio: $1,800
- 1 bedroom: $2,000
- 2 bedrooms: $2,600
- 3 bedrooms: $3,500
- 4 bedrooms: $4,700
- 5+ bedrooms: $6,200
About 55% of renters search for housing priced at $2,500/month or less. The largest cohort (24%) searches in the $2,000–$2,500 range. Room rentals anchor the most affordable segment of the category.
Across monthly rental marketplaces like Furnished Finder, Zillow, and Apartments.com, roughly 80% of inventory is priced under $3,000 per month, and around 65% is priced under $2,500. This pricing structure reflects housing economics, not tourism economics; rates are driven by workforce housing budgets, regional affordability, and the functional nature of the units rather than nightly yield.
Amenities that matter
Monthly renters value pet-friendliness and washer access above all. AirDNA data indicates that 38% of monthly stays on other major booking platforms involve pet-friendly listings, compared to 34% for short-term rentals.
Pet-friendliness results in a 4.7 percentage point premium for monthly rentals compared to short-term stays. In-unit or on-site laundry delivers a 3.2 percentage point premium. These aren't luxury upgrades – they're essentials for people living somewhere for weeks or months.
Monthly renters care less about outdoor furniture, pools, hot tubs, waterfront access, fire pits, parking, ocean or lake views, and cable. The recipe for a great monthly rental is simple: comfort, reliability, and clarity – not novelty.
How landlords can capitalize on the monthly rental opportunity
Lower capital required to get started
You don't need a luxury property to succeed with monthly rentals. While some newcomers consider rental arbitrage, or leasing properties and subleasing them, this strategy carries significant risks including lease violations, insurance gaps, and potential legal issues. A more sustainable approach is starting with a single modest property purchase, which often requires less capital than many assume and provides proper ownership rights and insurance coverage. Additionally, if you have an extra room in a house or apartment that you own, or a garage or structure on your property that can be turned into an ADU, those are additional low-investment ways to get started.
Based on Furnished Finder data, furnishing a monthly rental can be done modestly, with costs typically averaging $7 per square foot, depending on unit size, market, and level of finish. Success in monthly rentals is tied to livability, safety, and proximity to work – not luxury amenities or experiential design.
Lower turnover, higher yield potential
Monthly rentals generate revenue through longer stays and reduced operational intensity. AirDNA's data shows that monthly stays average 45 nights, more than ten times longer than short-term stays. Monthly stays are also booked closer to the stay date; the average lead time for monthly rentals is 24 days, which is four days shorter than for short-term stays.
Turnover and cleaning costs decline 60–70% per tenancy compared to short-term rentals. With fewer vacancy gaps and dramatically fewer cleans, many monthly rentals can achieve comparable annual income to short-term rentals while requiring substantially less labor and time. For operators with bigger listings, mid-term renting is a viable alternative to short-term use.
Less capital required, lower operational volatility
Monthly rentals are accessible to independent landlords and small operators who prioritize stability, predictability, and reduced management effort. About 19% of monthly rental demand is managed by professional hosts, defined as operators overseeing larger portfolios at a commercial scale. The remaining 81% of monthly demand is hosted by non-professional operators, including individual homeowners and small landlords.
Monthly rentals involve longer stays, fewer turnovers, and lower day-to-day operational intensity, making them well-suited for owners who want passive income without the high upfront costs associated with vacation rental staging or acquiring properties in premium locations.
Multiple operator models work
Monthly rentals create flexibility for every type of operator, with no one-size-fits-all model. According to Furnished Finder surveys of over 3,000 current landlords:
- 65% operate monthly rental-only models: Many new investors, especially homeowners monetizing spare space, operate exclusively as monthly-rental providers.
- 25% operate short-term + monthly rental hybrid models: Short-term rental hosts often shift to monthly stays seasonally (e.g., winter months) or permanently for regulatory or occupancy reasons.
- 10% operate long-term + monthly rental hybrid models: Traditional long-term landlords can enter the monthly rental space simply by adding furnishings, and many do so to increase their flexibility and increase their monthly yield.
For many property owners, the future is not choosing between short-term and monthly rentals, but mastering both.
The future is flexible
Monthly rentals have matured into a stable, transactionally unique housing format. Their rise is not only about regulation or market maturity – it reflects deeper structural trends: increased workforce mobility, housing constraints, and broad economic realignment in the rental sector.
As demand stabilizes at scale, monthly rentals are expanding in diversity of markets, traveler types, and property formats across the entire country. For landlords and real estate investors, monthly rentals will increasingly function not as a temporary solution, but as a foundational element of the modern rental landscape.
Whether you're an experienced short-term rental operator looking to reduce volatility, a traditional landlord seeking higher yields, or a first-time investor with limited capital, monthly rentals offer a compelling path forward.
If you're ready to list your property and start capturing this growing demand, Furnished Finder is the leading platform built specifically for stays of 30 days or longer. And if you're operating monthly rentals, make sure you have the right insurance coverage; Steadily's landlord insurance is designed to protect rental property investors with flexible, affordable policies tailored to your needs.
The rental market is changing. Monthly rentals aren't just a niche anymore – they're the hidden gem of housing. And the landlords who recognize this shift early will be the ones who capitalize on it.
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