Register‑Guard finds Eugene apartment rentals steady month-to-month, year-over-year

The typical apartment listed for rent at $1,700 in January, according to a Register‑Guard analysis using Zumper listing data, a figure that tracked closely with December’s $1,688 and showed little change from the same period a year earlier. Zumper’s extract covered all bedroom sizes in the Eugene metro area and returned 940 active listings; three of those listings were subsidized and excluding them nudged the overall median to $1,719.

Zumper’s bedroom breakdown showed divergent movement within the market. One‑bedroom apartments listed to rent at a median of $1,200 in January, 3% lower than December when they were $1,240 and down 7% from $1,295 in January 2025. Two‑bedroom listings registered a median of $1,634, 5% higher than December’s $1,556 and slightly above last year’s $1,600. “It reflects the median rent for all listings that were active at any given point during the month, according to Russell Middleton, co‑founder of Zumper. New construction is included in the data and listings that are currently occupied or no longer available are excluded,” the analysis noted.

Eugene’s platform medians sit between state and national benchmarks. Zumper’s $1,700 median is about 5% above Oregon’s reported median listing price of $1,624, but roughly 9% below the national median listing price of $1,878. On bedroom basis, Zumper showed one‑bedroom listings about 20% below the U.S. typical one‑bedroom price of $1,503, while two‑bedroom listings were about 9% below the national two‑bedroom median of $1,790.

Other data providers show higher central measures and underscore methodological differences. RentCafe reported an average rent of $1,854 for Eugene as of its Feb. 9, 2026 update, a 1.67% increase from $1,824 the year before, and listed unit‑type averages such as a 1‑bedroom at $1,516 and a 2‑bedroom at $1,787. Realtor.com’s local snapshot showed 613 rentals with a median rent of $1,860, but also displayed outsize listing changes on its platform text strings - month‑over‑month rentals +1,207.69% and year‑over‑year rentals +580% - figures that appear to be snapshot artifacts and warrant clarification from Realtor.com.

City of Eugene’s Market Rate Rent Assessment, based on early 2024 data collected from 71 medium and large developments representing 11,204 units or roughly 27% of the city’s estimated 40,000 registered rental units, paints a longer term picture. That survey recorded 2024 medians of $1,498 for a 1‑bedroom and $1,763 for a 2‑bedroom, and an average vacancy of 3.5% across 70 developments sampled, with 11 developments reporting 0% vacancy and a newly built 2022 development reporting 22% vacancy.

Taken together, platform listings and government surveys show a broadly steady headline for Eugene’s rental listings month‑to‑month and year‑over‑year, while revealing variation by bedroom type, data source, and property vintage. Zumper’s listing median and the City of Eugene’s sampled market rents differ in level and timing, and RentCafe and Realtor.com report higher central rent figures that reflect alternate sampling and averaging methods.