The District of Columbia is the most expensive U.S. state for studio apartments, with monthly rents nearly *** U.S. dollars higher than in Hawaii. As of February 2021, renters in District of Columbia paid on average ***** U.S. dollars monthly for a studio apartment. In comparison, studios in Arkansas were approximately three times more affordable.

Between 2020 and 2021, the average monthly rent in the U.S. saw an overall increase. Nevertheless, this was not the case in some states that experienced dramatic negative rental growth.

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 Arlington Profile combines countywide data sources and provides a comprehensive outlook of the most current data on population, housing, employment, development, transportation, and community services. These datasets are used to obtain an understanding of community, plan future services/needs, guide policy decisions, and secure grant funding. A PDF Version of the Arlington Profile can be accessed on the Arlington County website.

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.

Quarterly Average Apartment Rent

Displacement risk indicator classifying census tracts according to apartment rent prices in census tracts. We classify apartment rent along two dimensions:The median rents within the census tract for the specified year, balancing between nominal rental price and rental price per square foot.The change in median rent price (again balanced between nominal rent price and price per square foot) from the previous year.Note: Median rent calculations include market-rate and mixed-income multifamily apartment properties with 5 or more rental units in Seattle, excluding special types like student, senior, corporate or military housing.Source: Data from CoStar Group, www.costar.com, prepared by City of Seattle, Office of Planning and Community Development

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 ***** U.S. dollars, while in San Francisco, CA which ranked second highest, renters paid on average ***** U.S. dollars.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

Apartment rents in two states and the District of Columbia in the U.S. exceeded ***** U.S. dollars in April 2025. In Hawaii, the median rent was about ***** U.S. dollars, nearly *** U.S. dollars higher than the national average. At the other end of the spectrum was Nebraska, where renters paid about ***** U.S. dollars for the median new lease. Overall, most states saw rental rates increase year-on-year.

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 ...).

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 keep rental prices increasing. Renting in European cities In 2025, Munich was the most expensive city to rent a furnished studio among the 23 cities surveyed. At ***** euros per month, renting a studio in Munich cost nearly twice the price of a studio in Athens. For one-bedroom apartments or a furnished private room, the most expensive city was Amsterdam. Homeownership in Europe In many European countries owning your home is more commonplace than renting – for instance, in Romania, the homeownership rate is over ** percent. In the UK, affordability of housing is one of the leading housing concerns, with the majority of adults agreeing that first-time buyers getting on a property ladder is a very or somewhat serious problem.

Rent Inflation in the United States decreased to 3.90 percent in May from 4 percent in April of 2025. This dataset includes a chart with historical data for the United States Rent Inflation.

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.

Average rents for both occupied and unoccupied rental apartments in Canada’s Census Metropolitan Areas (CMAs). This data is organized by CMA and is presented by Rental Market Survey Zone and by bedroom type with totals for each. Drawn from CMHC’s Rental Market Survey, this data table helps industry professionals make informed rental market decisions.

Average Apartment Price: PS: Standard Apartments: NC: Chechen Republic data was reported at 80,726.280 RUB/sq m in Dec 2024. This records an increase from the previous number of 79,418.520 RUB/sq m for Sep 2024. Average Apartment Price: PS: Standard Apartments: NC: Chechen Republic data is updated quarterly, averaging 41,488.080 RUB/sq m from Mar 2010 (Median) to Dec 2024, with 60 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 80,726.280 RUB/sq m in Dec 2024 and a record low of 12,136.000 RUB/sq m in Dec 2010. Average Apartment Price: PS: Standard Apartments: NC: Chechen Republic data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by Federal State Statistics Service. The data is categorized under Global Database’s Russian Federation – Table RU.EB032: Average Apartment Price: Primary Sales (PS): by Region.

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