How is the mode of the monthly rents best described?

The mode of a dataset is defined as the value that appears most frequently within that dataset. In the context of monthly rents, describing the mode as the most frequently occurring rent accurately captures its definition. This means that if you were to examine a list of rents, the mode would be the specific rent amount that occurs more often than any other amount.

The other options represent different statistical measures: the average rent refers to the mean, which is calculated by summing all the rents and dividing by the number of rents; the mid-point of the rents typically pertains to the median, which is the middle value when all rents are sorted in order; and the highest rent simply refers to the maximum value in the dataset. Thus, identifying the mode as the most frequently occurring rent is correct because it specifically highlights the characteristic of mode as a measure of central tendency based on frequency.