If you’re in the market for a new home in Arizona, now may be the time to buy and forgo renting.

Because of the tight rent market, “its actually easier to buy than to rent right now,” President of Arizona Realtors, Sue Flucke said in an article on the Arizona Association of Realtors website.

Just in the past year, rent in the state increased 2.5 percent, the Arizona Association of Realtors article said. “The latest data from ABODO.com indicates that the average Arizona renter paid $892 per month for a one-bedroom in 2016 or 89 percent of the national average.” In fact, “RentJungle.com reported one-bedroom apartments in Phoenix averaged $899 a month in December,” the posting said.

For example, in locations such as Prescott and Yuma, renters saw the highest fluctuation in price, rising 5.6 percent and 8.5 percent. Phoenix dealt with rent rates rising to 3.3 percent and in Scottsdale, rent prices rose to an average of $1,054, the AAR article said.

As most cities faced this rising rent issue, some other areas actually fell in price or stayed fairly close to their previous rate, according to location. In Tucson, the rate increased only 1 percent, Jonathon Smoke, chief economist for realtor.com, said in the article. In other areas such as most western towns, they had “one of the greatest rent falls in January 2017; dropping from nearly 8 percent from December 2016,” AAR said in the article.