The affluent Northeastern city where rents are growing faster than anywhere else in America

Rent is rising in the most unlikeliest of cities across America with monthly charges going up faster in one particular northeastern city - even faster than in large metropolises such as New York City or Boston.

Data from real-estate marketplace company Zillow suggests rents are growing quicker in Hartford, Connecticut than any other major market, with Cleveland and Louisville not far behind. 

Rents have increased 7.8 percent over the last year in Hartford - far more than any other major market. 

It comes as rents have emerged as a key driver of inflation, with Federal Reserve officials labelling them the 'biggest stumbling block' to taming the economy.

Cleveland, Ohio set on the shores of Lake Erie came second with rents rising at 7.2 percent. 

In the nation's heartland, Louisville, Kentucky is still a popular place to rent a home with prices shooting up 6.8 percent over the last year. 

The northeastern city of Providence, Rhode Island, set midway between New York and Boston has rents up year-on-year by 6.3 percent, while the midwestern city of Milwaukee rounds out the top five with rents going up by 5.7 percent compared to 2023.

'More people move during the summer, which causes the rental market to heat up,' said Skylar Olsen, chief economist at Zillow. 

'Renters are being drawn to more affordable areas within the Northeast and Midwest. Commuting into New York City or Boston from places like Hartford or Providence might have been a deterrent before, but in this new age of remote and hybrid work, the savings seem worth it for many renters, even if it means an occasional painful commute.'

The cities with the priciest cities in the nation sit on both coasts with New York City the most expensive with a typical rent of $3,470 and the median asking rent in Manhattan $4,400.

The Silicon Valley city of San Jose, California is second with a typical rent of $3,430 and then Boston at $3,130.

The California coastal cities of San Francisco ($3,119) and San Diego ($3,083) are placed fourth and fifth priciest cities to rent in the country. 

It is likely Los Angeles will smash through the $3,000-a-month barrier if the current pace of rent growth holds.

Nationally, the typical rent is $2,054, according to ZORI. That is up 3.5% from last year, the fastest annual growth since last July.

Earlier this year, Chicago Fed President Austan Goolsbee warned that rents and rising mortgage rates had become a key driver of inflation.

'Housing is the biggest stumbling block,' Goolsbee was quoted in Bloomberg as saying.

'We thought we basically understood the mechanical, short-run model of how much housing inflation should be coming down. 

'And it hasn't come down as fast as we thought it was going to have come down at this point.'

Inflation in the U.S. cooled in June for a third straight month, a sign that the worst price spike in four decades is steadily fading and may soon usher in interest rate cuts by the Federal Reserve. 

In a better-than-expected report, consumer prices declined 0.1 percent from May to June after having remained flat the previous month, the Labor Department said on Thursday. 

It was the first monthly decline in overall inflation since May 2020, when the economy was paralyzed by the pandemic. 

Measured from one year earlier, prices were up 3 percent in June, cooler than the 3.3 percent annual rate in May.