SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (IRN) — As housing prices continue to go up in Illinois, rental prices are heading in the other direction.

The state is seeing one of the biggest declines in rental prices in the country. According to an analysis by QuoteWizard, the average cost of an apartment in the state has decreased 6.2% over the last two years, which ranks fifth in the country for rental cost decrease.

Senior research analyst Nick VinZant said the pandemic prompted a lot of people to move.

“That is when we saw this big push of people moving out of cities and urban areas, and moving more into the suburbs,” VinZant said.

According to Apartment List’s national rent report, Chicago is among the cities that saw the steepest decline in rent prices in the country. In the past year alone, the cost of rent has decreased by 12.5 percent.

VinZant said another factor for the price decrease is that there are a lot of apartments available around the state.

“One of the things that we saw specifically in Illinois is there is a pretty high rental vacancy rate,” VinZant said. “Once you get above 7 percent, that’s where you are looking at a pretty high vacancy rate. Illinois is at 8.5 percent.”

The average monthly cost of a one-bedroom apartment in Illinois is $863. Closer to Chicago, rental prices increase substantially. A one-bedroom apartment in Naperville costs around $1,400 a month.

The states with the highest monthly rent average care California and Hawaii at over $1,400 a month. The lowest monthly rent average in is West Virginia at $585.

The four other states where rent prices fell more than in Illinois were Massachusetts (11.3%), North Dakota (9%), New York (7.8%) and Washington (7.7%).

Rental prices have increased in Delaware (12.3%), Idaho (10.1%) and Arizona (9%).

By KEVIN BESSLER for the Illinois Radio Network