A new set of data released by Zillow has found that the median rent for multifamily buildings in Greater Hartford has risen by 46.5 percent on a per-square-foot basis between October 2010 and November 2019.

Zillow found renters in buildings with five or more units were paying $0.89 per square foot in October 2010, and are now paying $1.31. The median rent for these units was $985 in October 2010, and now sits at $1,250.

Annually, the area’s renters paid $1.8 billion in rent in 2019. That number has grown by 38.8 percent since 2010, but declined -1.5 percent in the past year.

The current national median rent is $1,600 per month, up 2.3 percent from a year ago. Rent prices have been on the rise since 2012, creating an affordability crunch that has led many renters to make sacrifices in order to pay their rent, including living with roommates longer, or reducing their savings for a down payment. Nationally, rent prices grew the fastest in June 2015, when the U.S. median rent rose 6.5 percent annually.

However, the rental market stabilized toward the end of the decade – annual rent growth slowed to less than 1 percent in late 2017 before ticking back up. By the end of the year 2020, Zillow predicts rent growth will slow slightly once more, stabilizing in line with wage growth and inflation at a rate just under 2 percent annually.

“While the total amount of rent paid has increased each year this decade, that trend is by no means immutable,” Zillow Group Economist Joshua Clark said in a statement. “With rental appreciation expected to decrease in the coming year and a homeownership rate that has been ticking up over the past few years, a small or even negative change in total rental spending could be in the cards in the early 2020s.”