A piece on the radio yesterday said that officially (statistically) rents aren't up much, but new leases and people renewing are seeing something like 20+ percent increases. IMHO there is a LOT going on that's not captured by the official numbers.
From what? The pre pandemic numbers? Or the minimized numbers you saw during urban flights right at the start?
Are new and renewed leases not the only ways rents can go up? That’s the main point of the lease term for the tenant?
I think the point is that the official statistic averages all leases—not just new ones. If so, it will lag quite a bit behind changes in the market and not reflect the price you can expect to pay if you're currently shopping for an apartment and not grandfathered in on an existing lease.