Apartment rents are shooting up in hundreds of cities across the U.S. Here's why.

Apartment rents across the U.S. are surging in almost 400 cities, with the average price for a 1-bedroom having shot up more than 25% since June 2021, according to Rent.com. The typical cost for a two-bedroom unit is up 26.5% over that period. 

The reasons: A severe shortage of affordable housing, rising home prices and soaring inflation. 

"You had a lot of people at the end of 2020 beginning of 2021 looking to buy a home and then the housing market really shot up — turned a lot of people away from buying a home towards renting," Brian Carberry, senior managing editor of Apartmentguide.com, told CBS News.