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.

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.

The average monthly rent in California for a two-bedroom apartment was 2,464 U.S. dollars in 2024, while a one-bedroom unit cost 1,989 U.S. dollars. Only renters who earn the area median income (AMI) can afford two-bedroom housing in California. 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 and one-bedroom apartment in California, making this housing in this state not affordable for them. The rent in California ranked highest among all other states in the United States for a two bedroom apartment in 2024.

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.

United States Median Asking Monthly Rent data was reported at 1,003.000 USD in Sep 2018. This records an increase from the previous number of 951.000 USD for Jun 2018. United States Median Asking Monthly Rent data is updated quarterly, averaging 588.000 USD from Mar 1988 (Median) to Sep 2018, with 123 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 1,003.000 USD in Sep 2018 and a record low of 330.000 USD in Mar 1988. United States Median Asking Monthly Rent data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by US Census Bureau. The data is categorized under Global Database’s United States – Table US.EB009: Median Asking Monthly Rent.

Private rent price statistics, including indices, annual percentage change and price levels.

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Graph and download economic data for Other Financial Information: Estimated Monthly Rental Value of Owned Home by Quintiles of Income Before Taxes: Fourth 20 Percent (61st to 80th Percentile) (CXU910050LB0105M) from 1984 to 2023 about owned, information, percentile, rent, tax, financial, income, housing, estimate, and USA.

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 2,200 U.S. dollars, up from 1,849 U.S. dollars in December 2020 before rents started to rise. Nevertheless, not all cities saw rents rise at the same pace.

United States Median Asking Monthly Rent: South data was reported at 973.000 USD in Sep 2018. This records an increase from the previous number of 928.000 USD for Jun 2018. United States Median Asking Monthly Rent: South data is updated quarterly, averaging 551.000 USD from Mar 1988 (Median) to Sep 2018, with 123 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 973.000 USD in Sep 2018 and a record low of 298.000 USD in Jun 1989. United States Median Asking Monthly Rent: South data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by US Census Bureau. The data is categorized under Global Database’s United States – Table US.EB009: Median Asking Monthly Rent.

Graph and download economic data for Other Financial Information: Estimated Monthly Rental Value of Owned Home by Age: from Age 55 to 64 (CXU910050LB0406M) from 1984 to 2023 about owned, age, information, rent, financial, housing, estimate, and USA.

Graph and download economic data for All Employees, Real Estate and Rental and Leasing (CEU5553000001) from Jan 1990 to May 2025 about leases, rent, real estate, financial, establishment survey, employment, and USA.

Graph and download economic data for All Employees: Financial Activities: Real Estate and Rental and Leasing in Kentucky (SMS21000005553000001) from Jan 1990 to May 2025 about leases, rent, real estate, KY, employment, and USA.

The overall objective of the Rental Market Statistics is to study the number of deposits and the monthly rent associated with private rental contracts created in the quarter/year and in force in the Basque Country. It is a basic source of information on the system of housing policy monitoring indicators.More information in the https://www.euskadi.eus/web01-s2ing/es/contenidos/informacion/122417_ema_oe_informacion/es_ovv_meto/index.shtml"/target="blank"> departmental statistical portal.

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.

The median monthly asking rent of single family homes and apartments in Manhattan, New York plummeted in 2020, following the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic outbreak. The average rent in Upper East Side fell to 2,500 U.S. dollars, only to surge in the next two years. In 2024, a residential property in Downtown Manhattan had an average rent of nearly 4,907 U.S. dollars.

RTB Average Monthly Rent Report (Euro) by HalfYear, Location, Property Type and Number of Bedrooms

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Performance measures dataset

This dataset encompasses all rental listings from early 2023 in Brussels in dirty format. It serves as a great exercise on:

• how to deal with missing data (not all listings provided information on all variables)
• how to clean data (e.g. price columns need to be converted to numeric)
• how to train regression models

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The main objective of the Survey on Rented Households is as follows: To know the characteristics and situation of households residing in rental housing in the Basque Country and the characteristics of rental housing by type of rental. It is a basic source of information for the system of indicators for monitoring housing policy.More information can be found at https://www.euskadi.eus/survey-to-household-in-regimen-enalq-informacion/web01-s2ing/en/">departmental statistical portal.