[Zanni]

My first thought, on reading the source of the data, is that the article was probably prompted by a press release from Zumper. I don't know this, but if reporting a record high gets them press for their app, they'll certainly be biased towards finding a record high. What a poorly sourced article.

[dthal]

From that CityObservatory article:

  Zumper has also made a name for itself through its “National Rent Reports”
  —more or less monthly press releases that claim to track median rental prices around the country. 
  These reports have received copious media coverage, from the Bay Area to Seattle to Nashville to Chicago to Boston to LA to Miami to Denver, and so on.

[johnvanatta]

Paul Graham wrote a great essay on this:

http://www.paulgraham.com/submarine.html

From what I've seen, it's definitely true, most "news" is at least influenced by PR firms. Part of why (now old school) blogs are so refreshing to read in contrast. I remember working at a startup, and our marketing person once asked the engineers to do some quick data analysis to get a soundbite just like this.