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.
Amsterdam is set to maintain its position as Europe's most expensive city for apartment rentals in 2025, with median costs reaching 2,500 euros per month for a furnished one-bedroom unit. This figure is double the rent in Prague and significantly higher than other major European capitals like Paris, Berlin, and Madrid. The stark difference in rental costs across European cities reflects broader economic trends, housing policies, and the complex interplay between supply and demand in urban centers. Factors driving rental costs across Europe The disparity in rental prices across European cities can be attributed to various factors. In countries like Switzerland, Germany, and Austria, a higher proportion of the population lives in rental housing. This trend contributes to increased demand and potentially higher living costs in these nations. Conversely, many Eastern and Southern European countries have homeownership rates exceeding 90 percent, which may help keep rental prices lower in those regions. Housing affordability and market dynamics The relationship between housing prices and rental rates varies significantly across Europe. As of 2024, countries like Turkey, Iceland, Portugal, and Hungary had the highest house price to rent ratio indices. This indicates a widening gap between property values and rental costs since 2015. The affordability of homeownership versus renting differs greatly among European nations, with some countries experiencing rapid increases in property values that outpace rental growth. These market dynamics influence rental costs and contribute to the diverse rental landscape observed across European cities.
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.
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.
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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.
In the first quarter of 2025, Amsterdam was the most expensive city to rent a furnished private room among the 27 European cities surveyed. It was also among the top ranking most expensive cities to rent a furnished one-bedroom flat and studio apartment. 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 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.
Average rent per month in cities by type of dwelling
Rent prices per square meter in the largest Dutch cities have been on an upward trend after a slight decline in 2020. Amsterdam remained the most expensive city to live in, averaging a monthly rent of 27.6 euros per square meter for residential real estate in the private rental sector. Monthly rents in Utrecht were around six euros cheaper per square meter. Both cities were above the average rent price of residential property in the Netherlands overall, whereas Rotterdam and The Hague were slightly below that. Buying versus renting, what do the Dutch prefer? The Netherlands is one of Europe’s leading countries when it comes to homeownership, having funded this with a mortgage. In 2023, around 60 percent of people living in the Netherlands were homeowners with a mortgage. This is because Dutch homeowners were able to for many years to deduct interest paid from pre-tax income (a system known in the Netherlands as hypotheekrenteaftrek). This resulted in the Netherlands having one of the largest mortgage debts across the European continent. Total mortgage debt of Dutch households reached a value of approximately 803 billion euros in 2023. Is the Dutch housing market overheating? There are several indicators for the Netherlands that allow to investigate whether the housing market is overheating or not. House price indices corrected for inflation in the Netherlands suggest, for example, that prices have declined since 2022. The Netherlands’ house-price-to-rent-ratio, on the other hand, has exceeded the pre-crisis level in 2019. These figures, however, are believed to be significantly higher for cities like Amsterdam, as it was suggested for a long time that the prices of owner-occupied houses were increasing faster than rents in the private rental sector.
Rents in Germany continued to increase in all seven major cities in 2024. The average rent per square meter in Munich was approximately **** euros — the highest in the country. Conversely, Düsseldorf had the most affordable rent, at approximately **** euros per square meter. But how does renting compare to buying? According to the house price to rent ratio, house prices in Germany have risen faster than rents, making renting more affordable than buying. Affordability of housing in Germany In 2023, Germany was among the European countries with a relatively high house price to income ratio in Europe. The indicator compares the affordability of housing across OECD countries and is calculated as the nominal house prices divided by nominal disposable income per head, with 2015 chosen as a base year. Between 2012 and 2022, property prices in the country rose much faster than income, with the house price to income index peaking at *** index points at the beginning of 2022. Slower house price growth in the following years has led to the index declining, as incomes catch up. Nevertheless, homebuyers in 2024 faced significantly higher mortgage interest rates, contributing to a higher final cost. How much does buying a property in Germany cost? Just as with renting, Munich was the most expensive city for newly built apartments. In 2024, the cost per square meter in Munich was almost ***** euros pricier than in the runner-up city, Frankfurt. Detached and semi-detached houses are usually more expensive. The price gap between Munich and the second most expensive city, Stuttgart, was nearly ***** euros per square meter.
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 ...).
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Graph and download economic data for Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers: Rent of Shelter in U.S. City Average (CUSR0000SAS2RS) from Jan 1990 to May 2025 about shelter, rent, urban, consumer, CPI, inflation, price index, indexes, price, and USA.
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.
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Graph and download economic data for Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers: Owners' Equivalent Rent of Primary Residence in U.S. City Average (CUUR0000SEHC01) from Dec 1982 to May 2025 about primary, rent, urban, consumer, CPI, inflation, price index, indexes, price, and USA.
The average monthly rent of residential housing in Norway in 2023 was most expensive in the capital Oslo, amounting more than 26 euros per square meter. Trondheim had an average monthly rent of around 21.2 euros per square meter, while it was around 20.1 euros per square meter in Bergen.
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General description: File containing the results of the study produced by Yanport in August 2020 on the rental and capital yield of car parks in cities with more than 100,000 inhabitants of metropolitan France. If you use this data please quote Yanport: https://www.yanport.com/ Corresponding Article: https://www.yanport.com/blog/posts/investir-parking-france-2020?utm_source=blog&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=parking2020
** Tabs**: Cities: contains results for the 40 cities of Metropolitan France
Variables: N_price_medium: number of properties used to calculate the average displayed price (year 2019 Q2 to 2020 Q1 included). price_medium: average price displayed in EUR (year 2019 Q2 to 2020 Q1 included). N_loyer_medium: number of properties used to calculate the average rent (year 2019 Q2 to 2020 Q1 included). rent_medium: average rent in EUR (year 2019 Q2 to 2020 Q1 included). yield_loc: rental yield in % (rent_medium*12/medium price*100) N_prix_2019: number of goods used to calculate the average displayed price in 2019. price_2019: average price displayed in 2019 in EUR. N_prix_2017: number of goods used to calculate the average displayed price in 2017. price_2017: price shown average in 2017 in EUR. yield_cap: annualised return on capital between 2017 and 2019 in %: ((price_2019/price_2017)^(1/2)-1)*100 N_pub_med: number of properties used to calculate the median publication period for rentals (including Q2 to 2020 Q1) pub_med: median publication duration for rentals in days (including Q2 to 2020 Q1).
License: Open license version 2.0: https://www.etalab.gouv.fr/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/ETALAB-Licence-Ouverte-v2.0.pdf
The annual average rent in Tokyo's central business district amounted to around 19.8 thousand Japanese yen per tsubo in 2023. This was almost 1.6 times as high as the average rent for office space in Japan's second most populous city Yokohama.
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Germany Commercial Property Market Index: WG: 49 Cities: Average Retail Rent: Suburban data was reported at 166.760 1975=100 in 2019. This records an increase from the previous number of 166.010 1975=100 for 2018. Germany Commercial Property Market Index: WG: 49 Cities: Average Retail Rent: Suburban data is updated yearly, averaging 143.580 1975=100 from Dec 1975 (Median) to 2019, with 45 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 192.090 1975=100 in 1993 and a record low of 100.000 1975=100 in 1975. Germany Commercial Property Market Index: WG: 49 Cities: Average Retail Rent: Suburban data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by Bulwiengesa AG. The data is categorized under Global Database’s Germany – Table DE.EB004: Property Market Index.
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License information was derived automatically
United States - Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers: Rent of Shelter in U.S. City Average was 431.66800 Index Dec 1982=100 in April 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 431.66800 in April 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 June of 2025.
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.