In 2024, New York, NY, was the most expensive rental market for one-bedroom apartments in the United States. The median monthly rental rate of an apartment in New York was 4,280 U.S. dollars, while in San Francisco, CA which ranked second highest, renters paid on average 3,160 U.S. dollars.

Renting the typical one-bedroom apartment exceeded 2,500 U.S. dollars in three of United States' cities with population greater than 150,000 people in 2024. In May that year, the average rent for a one-bedroom apartment in Sunnyvale, California was 2,798 U.S. dollars.

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 Feb 2025 about primary, rent, urban, consumer, CPI, inflation, price index, indexes, price, and USA.

This statistic shows the average rent in high-end apartments in selected cities in the United States in 2018. The average monthly rent for a luxury apartment in Los Angeles, the second largest city in the U.S., was 3,028 U.S. dollars in 2018.

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.

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 2,828 U.S. dollars in May 2024, higher than the previous peak of 2,739 U.S. dollars in August 2019. In May 2024, the average monthly rent of a two-bedroom apartment in California was close to 2,208 U.S. dollars.

Among the largest cities in the United States, renting an apartment was most affordable in Wichita, KS, in 2024. On average, renters in Wichita could rent an 1,359 square foot apartment for 1,500 U.S. dollars. The average apartment rent varies widely across different metros and states, with Hawaii, California, and Washington D.C. fetching the most expensive rents.

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.

Panama City, Mexico City, and Guadalajara had the highest average apartment rents in 2022 among the selected Latin American cities. To calculate the average rent, the source only considered mid-income areas. To rent an apartment in Panama City, renters would have to pay on average 900 U.S. dollars.

United States - Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers: Rent of Shelter in U.S. City Average was 427.92800 Index Dec 1982=100 in January of 2025, according to the United States Federal Reserve. Historically, United States - Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers: Rent of Shelter in U.S. City Average reached a record high of 427.92800 in January of 2025 and a record low of 141.70000 in January of 1990. Trading Economics provides the current actual value, an historical data chart and related indicators for United States - Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers: Rent of Shelter in U.S. City Average - last updated from the United States Federal Reserve on March of 2025.

United States - Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers: Services Less Rent of Shelter in U.S. City Average was 426.53100 Index Dec 1982=100 in February of 2025, according to the United States Federal Reserve. Historically, United States - Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers: Services Less Rent of Shelter in U.S. City Average reached a record high of 426.53100 in February of 2025 and a record low of 111.30000 in January of 1985. Trading Economics provides the current actual value, an historical data chart and related indicators for United States - Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers: Services Less Rent of Shelter in U.S. City Average - last updated from the United States Federal Reserve on March of 2025.

Graph and download economic data for Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers: Rent of Shelter in U.S. City Average (CUUR0000SAS2RS) from Dec 1982 to Feb 2025 about shelter, rent, urban, consumer, CPI, inflation, price index, indexes, price, and USA.

United States - Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers: Owners' Equivalent Rent of Residences in U.S. City Average was 422.19100 Index Dec 1982=100 in February of 2025, according to the United States Federal Reserve. Historically, United States - Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers: Owners' Equivalent Rent of Residences in U.S. City Average reached a record high of 422.19100 in February of 2025 and a record low of 100.60000 in January of 1983. Trading Economics provides the current actual value, an historical data chart and related indicators for United States - Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers: Owners' Equivalent Rent of Residences in U.S. City Average - last updated from the United States Federal Reserve on March of 2025.

In the first quarter of 2024, Amsterdam was the most expensive city to rent a furnished one-bedroom apartment among the 23 leading European cities surveyed. At 2,300 euros per month, rent in Amsterdam was more than twice as high as in Brussels. Amsterdam was also the most expensive city to rent a private room.One of the main factors driving high rents across European cities is the same as any other consumer-driven business. If demand outweighs supply, prices will inflate. The drive for high paid professionals to be located centrally in prime locations, mixed with the low levels of available space, high land, and construction costs, all help keep rental prices increasing.

United States - Consumer Price Index for All Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers: Rent of Shelter in U.S. City Average was 321.26100 Index Dec 1984=100 in November of 2021, according to the United States Federal Reserve. Historically, United States - Consumer Price Index for All Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers: Rent of Shelter in U.S. City Average reached a record high of 321.26100 in November of 2021 and a record low of 128.00000 in January of 1990. Trading Economics provides the current actual value, an historical data chart and related indicators for United States - Consumer Price Index for All Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers: Rent of Shelter in U.S. City Average - last updated from the United States Federal Reserve on March of 2025.

Graph and download economic data for Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers: Services Less Rent of Shelter in U.S. City Average (CUSR0000SASL2RS) from Jan 1985 to Feb 2025 about shelter, rent, urban, consumer, services, CPI, inflation, price index, indexes, price, and USA.

This dataset was developed by the Research & Analytics Group at the Atlanta Regional Commission using data from the U.S. Census Bureau.For a deep dive into the data model including every specific metric, see the Infrastructure Manifest. The manifest details ARC-defined naming conventions, field names/descriptions and topics, summary levels; source tables; notes and so forth for all metrics.Naming conventions:Prefixes: None Countp Percentr Ratem Mediana Mean (average)t Aggregate (total)ch Change in absolute terms (value in t2 - value in t1)pch Percent change ((value in t2 - value in t1) / value in t1)chp Change in percent (percent in t2 - percent in t1)s Significance flag for change: 1 = statistically significant with a 90% CI, 0 = not statistically significant, blank = cannot be computed Suffixes: _e19 Estimate from 2014-19 ACS_m19 Margin of Error from 2014-19 ACS_00_v19 Decennial 2000, re-estimated to 2019 geography_00_19 Change, 2000-19_e10_v19 2006-10 ACS, re-estimated to 2019 geography_m10_v19 Margin of Error from 2006-10 ACS, re-estimated to 2019 geography_e10_19 Change, 2010-19The 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 2015-2019). 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: 2015-2019Data License: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC by 4.0)Link to the manifest: https://www.arcgis.com/sharing/rest/content/items/3d489c725bb24f52a987b302147c46ee/data

Graph and download economic data for Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers: Services Less Rent of Shelter in U.S. City Average (CUUS0000SASL2RS) from H1 1984 to H2 2024 about shelter, rent, urban, consumer, services, CPI, price index, indexes, price, and USA.

Graph and download economic data for Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers: Owners' Equivalent Rent of Primary Residence in U.S. City Average (CUSR0000SEHC01) from Jan 1983 to Feb 2025 about primary, rent, urban, consumer, CPI, inflation, price index, indexes, price, and USA.

Graph and download economic data for Consumer Price Index for All Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers: Owners' Equivalent Rent of Primary Residence in U.S. City Average (CWUR0000SEHC01) from Jan 1985 to Feb 2025 about clerical workers, primary, rent, urban, wages, CPI, inflation, price index, indexes, price, and USA.