The average monthly rent for all apartment types in the U.S. soared in 2021 and 2022, followed by a slight decline in the next two years. In April 2025, the monthly rent for a two-bedroom apartment amounting 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, which 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 2024, 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 April 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.

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.

Graph and download economic data for Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers: Rent of Primary Residence in U.S. City Average (CUUR0000SEHA) from Dec 1914 to Jun 2025 about primary, rent, urban, consumer, CPI, inflation, price index, indexes, price, and USA.

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'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.

The monthly median asking rent for unfurnished apartments in the United States rose by about ** U.S. dollars in 2024. In the third quarter of 2024, the median rent amounted to ***** U.S. dollars, up from ***** U.S. dollars in 2023. This increase was in line with a decade of steady growth, interrupted only in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic and in 2023. The U.S. rental market As rental apartment vacancy rates fall, rents are on the rise. This makes it more difficult for Americans to, first, find an apartment to rent, and second, find an apartment which they can afford. Nevertheless, renting has become much more common in recent years, with the number of renter households having substantially increased in the past two decades. In 2024, there were approximately **** million renter households in the U.S. Rents in different states Of course, rents vary from state to state. The most expensive rents are found in Hawaii, California, District of Colombia, New Jersey, and Florida. Following the COVID-19 pandemic, growth was the strongest in the Sun Belt states, and especially in states with lower costs of living, such as Texas. In Austin, TX, the average rent soared by nearly ** percent in 2021, and remained elevated, despite a slight decline in 2023.

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 asking rent for retail real estate in the United States has increased steadily since 2020. In the first quarter of 2025, the average square footage asking rent reached ***** U.S. dollars, while the average effective rent amounted to ***** U.S. dollars. Nevertheless, rents varied greatly in different regions in the U.S. The Western region of the country had the highest rent for shopping center space.

Graph and download economic data for Average Sales Price of Houses Sold for the United States (ASPUS) from Q1 1963 to Q2 2025 about sales, housing, and USA.

The average monthly asking rent for shopping center space in Orange County, California, increased between 2020 and 2024. Rents peaked at ***** U.S. dollars per square meter in the fourth quarter of 2023, followed by a slight decline in the first quarter of 2024. Hawaii, San Francisco, and San Jose were the markets with the highest average shopping center rent in the U.S.

The average monthly asking rent per square foot of shopping center real estate in the United States increased between 2020 and 2025. This trend was observed in all regions, with the West seeing the highest rents at ***** U.S. dollars per square foot as of the first quarter of 2025. On average, asking rent for all classes across the country stood at ***** U.S. dollars.

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.

In 2020, San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara in California was the most expensive metropolitan area for both renting and owning a home in the United States. The median monthly housing costs for owners in 2020 were ***** U.S. dollars, whereas for renters they were ***** U.S. dollars. In all thirty metropolitan areas, renting was more affordable than buying. As of *************, the average rent for a three bedroom apartment was nearly ***** U.S. dollars.

SELECTED HOUSING CHARACTERISTICS GROSS RENT - DP04 Universe - Occupied units paying rent Survey-Program - American Community Survey 5-year estimates Years - 2020, 2021, 2022 Gross rent is the contract rent plus the estimated average monthly cost of utilities (electricity, gas, and water and sewer) and fuels (oil, coal, kerosene, wood, etc.) if these are paid by the renter (or paid for the renter by someone else). Gross rent is intended to eliminate differentials that result from varying practices with respect to the inclusion of utilities and fuels as part of the rental payment. The estimated costs of water and sewer, and fuels are reported on a 12-month basis but are converted to monthly figures for the tabulations. Renter units occupied without payment of rent are shown separately as “No rent paid” in the tabulations.

The average monthly asking rent in the Orlando, Florida, increased overall between 2020 and 2024. The highest value was observed in the fourth quarter of 2023 at ***** U.S. dollars. Subsequently, rents decreased to ***** U.S. dollars in the first quarter of 2024. Hawaii, San Francisco, and San Jose were the markets with the highest average shopping center rent in the U.S.

Graph and download economic data for Rental Vacancy Rate for California (CARVAC) from 1986 to 2024 about vacancy, rent, CA, rate, and USA.

The average monthly asking rent for shopping center space in Inland Empire, California, increased between 2020 and 2024. Rents peaked at ***** U.S. dollars per square meter in the first quarter of 2024. Hawaii, San Francisco, and San Jose were the markets with the highest average shopping center rent in the U.S.

This dataset was developed by the Research & Analytics Group at the Atlanta Regional Commission using data from the U.S. Census Bureau across all standard and custom geographies at statewide summary level where applicable. For a deep dive into the data model including every specific metric, see the ACS 2017-2021 Data Manifest. The manifest details ARC-defined naming conventions, field names/descriptions and topics, summary levels; source tables; notes and so forth for all metrics. Find naming convention prefixes/suffixes, geography definitions and user notes below.Prefixes:NoneCountpPercentrRatemMedianaMean (average)tAggregate (total)chChange in absolute terms (value in t2 - value in t1)pchPercent change ((value in t2 - value in t1) / value in t1)chpChange in percent (percent in t2 - percent in t1)sSignificance flag for change: 1 = statistically significant with a 90% CI, 0 = not statistically significant, blank = cannot be computedSuffixes:_e21Estimate from 2017-21 ACS_m21Margin of Error from 2017-21 ACS_e102006-10 ACS, re-estimated to 2020 geography_m10Margin of Error from 2006-10 ACS, re-estimated to 2020 geography_e10_21Change, 2010-21 (holding constant at 2020 geography)GeographiesAAA = Area Agency on Aging (12 geographic units formed from counties providing statewide coverage)ARC21 = Atlanta Regional Commission modeling area (21 counties merged to a single geographic unit)ARWDB7 = Atlanta Regional Workforce Development Board (7 counties merged to a single geographic unit)BeltLine (buffer)BeltLine Study (subareas)Census Tract (statewide)CFGA23 = Community Foundation for Greater Atlanta (23 counties merged to a single geographic unit)City (statewide)City of Atlanta Council Districts (City of Atlanta)City of Atlanta Neighborhood Planning Unit (City of Atlanta)City of Atlanta Neighborhood Planning Unit STV (3 NPUs merged to a single geographic unit within City of Atlanta)City of Atlanta Neighborhood Statistical Areas (City of Atlanta)City of Atlanta Neighborhood Statistical Areas E02E06 (2 NSAs merged to single geographic unit within City of Atlanta)County (statewide)Georgia House (statewide)Georgia Senate (statewide)MetroWater15 = Atlanta Metropolitan Water District (15 counties merged to a single geographic unit)Regional Commissions (statewide)SPARCC = Strong, Prosperous And Resilient Communities ChallengeState of Georgia (single geographic unit)Superdistrict (ARC region)US Congress (statewide)UWGA13 = United Way of Greater Atlanta (13 counties merged to a single geographic unit)WFF = Westside Future Fund (subarea of City of Atlanta)ZIP Code Tabulation Areas (statewide)The user should note that American Community Survey data represent estimates derived from a surveyed sample of the population, which creates some level of uncertainty, as opposed to an exact measure of the entire population (the full census count is only conducted once every 10 years and does not cover as many detailed characteristics of the population). Therefore, any measure reported by ACS should not be taken as an exact number – this is why a corresponding margin of error (MOE) is also given for ACS measures. The size of the MOE relative to its corresponding estimate value provides an indication of confidence in the accuracy of each estimate. Each MOE is expressed in the same units as its corresponding measure; for example, if the estimate value is expressed as a number, then its MOE will also be a number; if the estimate value is expressed as a percent, then its MOE will also be a percent. The user should also note that for relatively small geographic areas, such as census tracts shown here, ACS only releases combined 5-year estimates, meaning these estimates represent rolling averages of survey results that were collected over a 5-year span (in this case 2017-2021). Therefore, these data do not represent any one specific point in time or even one specific year. For geographic areas with larger populations, 3-year and 1-year estimates are also available. For further explanation of ACS estimates and margin of error, visit Census ACS website.Source: U.S. Census Bureau, Atlanta Regional CommissionDate: 2017-2021Data License: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC by 4.0)Link to the data manifest: https://garc.maps.arcgis.com/sharing/rest/content/items/34b9adfdcc294788ba9c70bf433bd4c1/data

The average monthly asking rent per square foot of shopping center real estate in the leading markets in Texas increased between 2020 and 2024. Although this trend was observed in all four major markets, Austin recorded the highest rent in 2024, at **** U.S. dollars per square foot. This was higher than both the national average and the average for the South region.