States With The Highest And Lowest Rent In The US For January 2024

We’ve previously taken a look at the Cheapest States and Most Expensive States, and to no one’s surprise, California was the most expensive.

But that analysis was done based on the total cost of living for food, daycare, transportation, and, of course, housing.

So today we wanted to highlight what might the most important piece of data of all those listed above — housing — and, in particular, the states with the highest rent.

In one of the few analyzes we do that does not rely on Census data, our data for this particular excercise comes from ApartmentList which releases the most timely and accurate data available on rents across the country. We specifically looked the Rental Listings –> Overall –> State data set.

After we extracted the rental data and ranked them from highest lowest, California came in a distant second to New York.

Here’s a look at the ten states in America with the highest rent:

1. Hawaii (Rent)
2. California (Rent)
3. Massachusetts (Rent)
4. New Jersey (Rent)
5. New York (Rent)
6. Maryland (Rent)
7. Washington (Rent)
8. Virginia (Rent)
9. Colorado (Rent)
10. Connecticut (Rent)

Here’s a look at the ten states in America with the lowest rent:

1. South Dakota (Rent)
2. West Virginia (Rent)
3. Arkansas (Rent)
4. Oklahoma (Rent)
5. Alabama (Rent)
6. Iowa (Rent)
7. Kentucky (Rent)
8. Maine (Rent)
9. Mississippi (Rent)
10. Kansas (Rent)

Rent is generally cheaper in the Midwestern states and the South compare to the coasts. More land and less demands means lower rent.

Read on for a more detailed methodology and data on each state or feel free to check out some of other research:

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How We Calculated The States With The Highest And Lowest Rent For January 2024

We’ve been ranking states and cities for over four years now and we always start our quests for data in the same manner — as stroll through the American Community Survey.

But, as we mentioned above, we’ve made a rate exception to that rule as there is another source we trust and that has way more timely data — ApartmentList.

ApartmentList provides monthly data on rents across America by state, select counties, and select cities. The current data runs through January 2024 — there’s a bit of a lag in reporting.

That compares to the Census last release of data in December 2023 that only goes through 2022, so ApartmentList is way more up-to-date.

With all that in mind, we took the median rent for Rental Listings –> Median Rent Overall –> State from ApartmentList’s data.

We then ranked each state from the highest median rent to the lowest.

The state with the most expensive rent ended up being Hawaii.

The best deal? South Dakota and West Virginia.

Continue on for a look at the top ten or scroll to the bottom for a detailed, state-by-state table. We also broke down every state’s data into specific charts and graphs.

We updated this article for January 2024.

The 10 States With The Highest Median Rent In America

1. Hawaii

Population: 1,450,589
Median Rent: $2,203

Detailed breakdown of rents in Hawaii.

2. California

Population: 39,356,104
Median Rent: $2,112

Detailed breakdown of rents in California.

3. Massachusetts

Population: 6,984,205
Median Rent: $1,908

Detailed breakdown of rents in Massachusetts.

4. New Jersey

Population: 9,249,063
Median Rent: $1,880

Detailed breakdown of rents in New Jersey.

5. New York

Population: 19,994,379
Median Rent: $1,820

Detailed breakdown of rents in New York.

6. Maryland

Population: 6,161,707
Median Rent: $1,767

Detailed breakdown of rents in Maryland.

7. Washington

Population: 7,688,549
Median Rent: $1,700

Detailed breakdown of rents in Washington.

8. Virginia

Population: 8,624,511
Median Rent: $1,659

Detailed breakdown of rents in Virginia.

9. Colorado

Population: 5,770,790
Median Rent: $1,654

Detailed breakdown of rents in Colorado.

10. Connecticut

Population: 3,611,317
Median Rent: $1,577

Detailed breakdown of rents in Connecticut.

The 10 States With The Lowest Median Rent In America

1. South Dakota

Population: 890,342
Median Rent: $870

Detailed breakdown of rents in South Dakota.

2. West Virginia

Population: 1,792,967
Median Rent: $879

Detailed breakdown of rents in West Virginia.

3. Arkansas

Population: 3,018,669
Median Rent: $921

Detailed breakdown of rents in Arkansas.

4. Oklahoma

Population: 3,970,497
Median Rent: $981

Detailed breakdown of rents in Oklahoma.

5. Alabama

Population: 5,028,092
Median Rent: $984

Detailed breakdown of rents in Alabama.

6. Iowa

Population: 3,188,836
Median Rent: $986

Detailed breakdown of rents in Iowa.

7. Kentucky

Population: 4,502,935
Median Rent: $1,002

Detailed breakdown of rents in Kentucky.

8. Maine

Population: 1,366,949
Median Rent: $1,009

Detailed breakdown of rents in Maine.

9. Mississippi

Population: 2,958,846
Median Rent: $1,011

Detailed breakdown of rents in Mississippi.

10. Kansas

Population: 2,935,922
Median Rent: $1,038

Detailed breakdown of rents in Kansas.

So There Are Your States With The Highest Rents In America

With the median rent in America only $1,700, you can expect to pay almost twice that in California or New York.

The states with the highest rent in the United States are Hawaii, California, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Maryland, Washington, Virginia, Colorado, and Connecticut.

The states with the lowest rent in the United States are South Dakota, West Virginia, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Alabama, Iowa, Kentucky, Maine, Mississippi, and Kansas.

If you’re thinking of trying to move to somewhere cheap, then stick to the heartland where you can expect to pay closer to $1,000.

For more reading, check out:

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