From Publius Papers. Congress is still out this week, with no votes, so today we're looking at the biggest monthly bill for many households: rent. The typical rent on a newly signed apartment lease is $1,384 a month, just $1 more than a year ago. Below: where rents are still climbing, what's happening with electric bills, the two bills still waiting on the President, and what's next.
1. New-lease rents have stopped climbing
The numbers: Apartment List, a rental listings company that publishes monthly rent estimates, puts the U.S. median rent for a newly signed apartment lease at $1,384 a month in October 2026. A year ago it was $1,383. One-bedroom ($1,215) and two-bedroom ($1,369) rents are exactly where they were in October 2025.
How it compares: New-lease rents peaked at $1,442 in August 2022 and are $58 below that now. They're still about 19% higher than in October 2019, when the median was $1,160, because rents jumped sharply in 2021.
Why other measures look higher: These figures cover new leases only. The government's consumer price index (CPI) for shelter, which also counts what current tenants and homeowners pay, was up 3.2% in the year to September, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Rents on existing leases usually change more slowly, so they can keep rising after new-lease rents level off.
2. Where rents are still rising
The numbers: Zillow's Observed Rent Index, which tracks typical asking rents for houses, condos and apartments, was $1,932 a month nationally in September 2026, up 2.7% ($51) from a year earlier.
By city: Among the 15 largest metro areas, the San Francisco area rose the most, up 11.8% to $3,445. Chicago (4.7%), New York (4.2%) and Detroit (4.2%) also rose faster than the national rate. Houston (0.1%), Dallas (0.7%) and Phoenix (1.0%) were close to flat.
3. Still on the President's desk
Two bills presented to the President on Oct 26 are still waiting, according to Congress.gov as of this morning:
The President has until Friday, Nov. 6, to sign or veto them.
Quick list
New House bills, no votes: During Thursday's brief pro forma session, 39 new bills and resolutions were introduced in the House, and committees sent 14 bills to the full House calendar. Among the new ones: H.R. 10950, which would require sponsors of large data centers to file public disclosure statements with the Energy Department, and H.R. 10926, on protecting election workers and polling places.
Electric bills: The average U.S. home paid 18.16¢ per kilowatt-hour for electricity in August 2026, up 3.4% from 17.57¢ a year earlier, according to preliminary Energy Information Administration (EIA) data. The average residential bill that month was about $209, up from about $188.
Still waiting to be sent: The Common Cents Act (H.R. 10167), which would end penny production for circulation, passed the Senate on Sept 28 but hasn't been presented to the President yet.
Election Day is Tuesday, Nov. 3: See who represents you and who funds their campaigns on My ballot, using Federal Election Commission data.
What's next
Tuesday, Nov. 3: Election Day.
Friday, Nov. 6: The President's deadline to act on H.R. 8205 and H.R. 1744.
November: New monthly rent figures from Apartment List and Zillow. Our daily price collector picks them up, and we'll chart them on our cost-of-living page.
Get our charts daily: follow @PubliusPapersHQ on X
Thanks for reading.
The Publius Papers team
Data: Apartment List rent estimates (national median new-lease rent, October 2026) and the Zillow Observed Rent Index (all homes, smoothed, September 2026), both retrieved Oct 30, 2026, by the Publius daily price collector. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U shelter, September 2026. EIA Form 861M monthly electricity data (residential, August 2026, preliminary); the national price and average bill are Publius calculations from total state revenue, sales and customers. Bill status is from the Congress.gov API (Library of Congress), pulled Oct 30, 2026.