The median monthly rent for all apartment types in the U.S. has stabilized since 2022, despite some seasonal fluctuations. In August 2025, the monthly rent for a two-bedroom apartment amounted to ***** U.S. dollars. That was an increase from ***** U.S. dollars in January 2021, but a decline from the peak value of ***** U.S. dollars in August 2022. Where are the most expensive apartments in the U.S.? Apartment rents vary widely from state to state. To afford a two-bedroom apartment in California, for example, a renter needed to earn an average hourly wage of nearly ** U.S. dollars. This was approximately double the average wage in North Carolina and three times as much as the average wage in Arkansas. In fact, rental costs were considerably higher than the hourly minimum wage in all U.S. states. How did rents change in different states in the U.S.? In 2025, some of the most expensive states to rent an apartment only saw a moderate increase in rental prices. Nevertheless, rents increased in most states as of August 2025. In West Virginia, the annual rental growth was the highest, at ***** percent.

The average monthly rent of apartments in California increased substantially 2021, followed by a period of stabilization. In May 2024, the average rent of a two-bedroom apartment cost over ***** U.S. dollars, up from ***** U.S. dollars in December 2020 before rents started to rise. Nevertheless, not all cities saw rents rise at the same pace.

Graph and download economic data for Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers: Rent of Primary Residence in U.S. City Average (CUSR0000SEHA) from Jan 1981 to Aug 2025 about primary, rent, urban, consumer, CPI, inflation, price index, indexes, price, and USA.

The average monthly rent of apartments in Florida increased substantially in 2021, followed by two years of slight decrease. As of ********, the average rent of a two-bedroom apartment in Florida cost ***** U.S. dollars, which was an increase of *** U.S. dollars from ******** when prices started to rise.

VITAL SIGNS INDICATOR
Rent Payments (EC8)

FULL MEASURE NAME
Median rent payment

LAST UPDATED
January 2023

DESCRIPTION
Rent payments refer to the cost of leasing an apartment or home and serves as a measure of housing costs for individuals who do not own a home. The data reflect the median monthly rent paid by Bay Area households across apartments and homes of various sizes and various levels of quality. This differs from advertised rents for available apartments, which usually are higher. Note that rent can be presented using nominal or real (inflation-adjusted) dollar values; data are presented inflation-adjusted to reflect changes in household purchasing power over time.

DATA SOURCE
U.S. Census Bureau: Decennial Census - https://nhgis.org
Count 2 (1970)
Form STF1 (1980-1990)
Form SF3a (2000)

U.S. Census Bureau: American Community Survey - https://data.census.gov/
Form B25058 (2005-2021; median contract rent)

Bureau of Labor Statistics: Consumer Price Index - https://www.bls.gov/data/
1970-2021

CONTACT INFORMATION
vitalsigns.info@mtc.ca.gov

METHODOLOGY NOTES (across all datasets for this indicator)
Rent data reflects median rent payments rather than list rents (refer to measure definition above). American Community Survey 1-year data is used for larger geographies – Bay counties and most metropolitan area counties – while smaller geographies rely upon 5-year rolling average data due to their smaller sample sizes. Note that 2020 data uses the 5-year estimates because the ACS did not collect 1-year data for 2020.

1970 Census data for median rent payments has been imputed from quintiles using methodology from California Department of Finance as the source data only provided the mean, rather than the median, monthly rent. Metro area boundaries reflects today’s metro area definitions by county for consistency, rather than historical metro area boundaries.

Inflation-adjusted data are presented to illustrate how rent payments have grown relative to overall price increases; that said, the use of the Consumer Price Index (CPI) does create some challenges given the fact that housing represents a major chunk of consumer goods bundle used to calculate CPI. This reflects a methodological tradeoff between precision and accuracy and is a common concern when working with any commodity that is a major component of CPI itself.

The average monthly rent of apartments in Florida increased substantially in 2021, followed by two years of slight decrease. As of May 2024, the average rent of a two-bedroom apartment in Florida cost 1,557 U.S. dollars, which was an increase of 400 U.S. dollars from May 2020 when prices started to rise.

Rents in California's most populous cities briefly decreased in 2020, but swiftly headed for recovery in the following year. In San Jose, the average rent amounted to ***** U.S. dollars in May 2024, higher than the previous peak of ***** U.S. dollars in August 2019. In May 2024, the average monthly rent of a two-bedroom apartment in California was close to ***** U.S. dollars.

The average monthly rent of apartments in Florida's biggest cities has increased substantially since 2020. In April 2024, the average rent in Miami-Fort Lauderdale-Pompano Beach, Florida was 1,895 U.S. dollars, which was an increase of approximately 400 U.S. dollars from September 2020.

This table contains data described by the following dimensions (Not all combinations are available): Geography (247 items: Carbonear; Newfoundland and Labrador; Corner Brook; Newfoundland and Labrador; Grand Falls-Windsor; Newfoundland and Labrador; Gander; Newfoundland and Labrador ...), Type of structure (4 items: Apartment structures of three units and over; Apartment structures of six units and over; Row and apartment structures of three units and over; Row structures of three units and over ...), Type of unit (4 items: Two bedroom units; Three bedroom units; One bedroom units; Bachelor units ...).

Virginia (VA) has the 19th highest rent in the country out of 56 states and territories. The Fair Market Rent in Virginia ranges from $701 for a 2-bedroom apartment in Grayson County, VA to $1,765 for a 2-bedroom unit in Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD HUD Metro FMR Area.

For FY 2024, the Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD HUD Metro FMR Area (Arlington County) rent for a studio or efficiency is $1,772 per month and $3,015 per month to rent a house or an apartment with 4 bedrooms. The average Fair Market Rent for a 2-bedroom home in Virginia is $1,056 per month.

Approximately 15% of Americans qualify for some level of housing assistance. The population in Virginia is around 2,038,847 people. So, there are around 305,827 people in Virginia who could be receiving housing benefits from the HUD. For FY 2025, the Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD HUD Metro FMR Area (Arlington County) rent for a studio or efficiency is $2,012 per month and $3,413 per month to rent a house or an apartment with 4 bedrooms. The average Fair Market Rent for a 2-bedroom home in Virginia is $1,059 per month.

The average monthly rent of apartments in Florida's biggest cities has increased substantially since 2020. In April 2024, the average rent in Miami-Fort Lauderdale-Pompano Beach, Florida was ***** U.S. dollars, which was an increase of approximately *** U.S. dollars from September 2020.

VITAL SIGNS INDICATOR List Rents (EC9)

FULL MEASURE NAME List Rents

LAST UPDATED October 2016

DESCRIPTION List rent refers to the advertised rents for available rental housing and serves as a measure of housing costs for new households moving into a neighborhood, city, county or region.

DATA SOURCE real Answers (1994 – 2015) no link

Zillow Metro Median Listing Price All Homes (2010-2016) http://www.zillow.com/research/data/

CONTACT INFORMATION vitalsigns.info@mtc.ca.gov

METHODOLOGY NOTES (across all datasets for this indicator) List rents data reflects median rent prices advertised for available apartments rather than median rent payments; more information is available in the indicator definition above. Regional and local geographies rely on data collected by real Answers, a research organization and database publisher specializing in the multifamily housing market. real Answers focuses on collecting longitudinal data for individual rental properties through quarterly surveys. For the Bay Area, their database is comprised of properties with 40 to 3,000+ housing units. Median list prices most likely have an upward bias due to the exclusion of smaller properties. The bias may be most extreme in geographies where large rental properties represent a small portion of the overall rental market. A map of the individual properties surveyed is included in the Local Focus section.

Individual properties surveyed provided lower- and upper-bound ranges for the various types of housing available (studio, 1 bedroom, 2 bedroom, etc.). Median lower- and upper-bound prices are determined across all housing types for the regional and county geographies. The median list price represented in Vital Signs is the average of the median lower- and upper-bound prices for the region and counties. Median upper-bound prices are determined across all housing types for the city geographies. The median list price represented in Vital Signs is the median upper-bound price for cities. For simplicity, only the mean list rent is displayed for the individual properties. The metro areas geography rely upon Zillow data, which is the median price for rentals listed through www.zillow.com during the month. Like the real Answers data, Zillow's median list prices most likely have an upward bias since small properties are underrepresented in Zillow's listings. The metro area data for the Bay Area cannot be compared to the regional Bay Area data. Due to afore mentioned data limitations, this data is suitable for analyzing the change in list rents over time but not necessarily comparisons of absolute list rents. Metro area boundaries reflects today’s metro area definitions by county for consistency, rather than historical metro area boundaries.

Due to the limited number of rental properties surveyed, city-level data is unavailable for Atherton, Belvedere, Brisbane, Calistoga, Clayton, Cloverdale, Cotati, Fairfax, Half Moon Bay, Healdsburg, Hillsborough, Los Altos Hills, Monte Sereno, Moranga, Oakley, Orinda, Portola Valley, Rio Vista, Ross, San Anselmo, San Carlos, Saratoga, Sebastopol, Windsor, Woodside, and Yountville.

Inflation-adjusted data are presented to illustrate how rents have grown relative to overall price increases; that said, the use of the Consumer Price Index does create some challenges given the fact that housing represents a major chunk of consumer goods bundle used to calculate CPI. This reflects a methodological tradeoff between precision and accuracy and is a common concern when working with any commodity that is a major component of CPI itself. Percent change in inflation-adjusted median is calculated with respect to the median price from the fourth quarter or December of the base year.

In 2025, the average monthly rent affordable to a family of four with a household income at the poverty line was 804 U.S. dollars. However, the average fair market rent for a two-bedroom rental home was 1,749 U.S. dollars per month in that year.

In 2024, the most expensive residential rental market in Europe was Luxembourg with rental costs of approximately 43.4 euros per square meter.Paris and Dublin followed with rental costs of 32 and 31.7 euros per square meter. Rents increased across most markets - a trend that could also be observed in the housing market. How much does an apartment cost in different European cities? Renting a furnished studio apartment in some of the leading cities in Europe can cost anywhere between 500 euros monthly (Budapest) and 2,000 euros (Amsterdam) per month. For a furnished one-bedroom apartment in Paris, France, one may be expected to pay on average 1,900 euros monthly. Which countries have the most affordable housing? The house price to rent ratio is an indicator of the affordability of owning housing over renting across European countries and is calculated as the nominal house prices divided by a rent price index. The higher the ratio, the more the gap between house prices and rental rates has widened since 2015 when the index base was 100. As of the first quarter of 2025, Finland, Italy, and Romania had the lowest house price to rent ratio, meaning that buying a house was most affordable there compared to renting.

The fair market monthly rent in Florida for a two-bedroom apartment was 1,938 U.S. dollars in 2025. Only renters who earn the area median income (AMI) can afford this housing in Florida. Rent affordable to renters with full-time jobs at mean renter wage or 30 percent area median income was lower than the fair market rent of a two-bedroom apartment and one-bedroom apartment in Florida, making housing in this state not affordable for them. The rent in Florida ranks ninth among all other states in the United States for a two bedroom apartment.

Graph and download economic data for Rental Vacancy Rate in the United States (RRVRUSQ156N) from Q1 1956 to Q2 2025 about vacancy, rent, rate, and USA.

Graph and download economic data for Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers: Owners' Equivalent Rent of Residences in U.S. City Average (CUSR0000SEHC) from Jan 1983 to Aug 2025 about rent, urban, consumer, CPI, inflation, price index, indexes, price, and USA.

High-end, or luxury apartments, are usually larger, situated in desirable locations, and provide various amenities, such as sporting facilities, recreational areas, and in-building services. In Fresno, California, which was one of the 30 best large cities for renting a luxury apartment according to the source, the average monthly rent of a high-end apartment was 1,588 U.S. dollars as of February 2021.

Russia Avg Consumer Price: HU: Housing: Private: Two-Room Apartment Rent data was reported at 17,302.940 RUB in Jan 2019. This records a decrease from the previous number of 17,345.860 RUB for Dec 2018. Russia Avg Consumer Price: HU: Housing: Private: Two-Room Apartment Rent data is updated monthly, averaging 17,790.670 RUB from Jan 2012 (Median) to Jan 2019, with 85 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 19,732.390 RUB in Sep 2015 and a record low of 11,159.180 RUB in Nov 2012. Russia Avg Consumer Price: HU: Housing: Private: Two-Room Apartment Rent data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by Federal State Statistics Service. The data is categorized under Russia Premium Database’s Prices – Table RU.PA020: Average Consumer Price: Housing and Utilities Services.

The monthly rent for *********** apartments in San Francisco and Bay Area has fluctuated since 2015. In 2023, the median monthly rent for a *********** apartment in San Francisco was ***** U.S. dollars, down from ***** U.S. dollars in 2021.