Cities Where Rent Doesn't Break the Bank

At least relative to the cities where it does, like Miami, per WalletHub
Posted Apr 20, 2025 1:10 PM CDT
Cities Where Rent Doesn't Break the Bank
Stock photo of Miami.   (Getty Images/MDV Edwards)

With skyrocketing home prices and property taxes keeping many out of homeownership, renting is the preferable choice for many over mom's basement, though it often isn't a cheap endeavor. WalletHub wanted to find where in the US renters can get the most bang for their buck, so it looked at more than 180 of the nation's biggest cities and figured out what percentage of median annual household income was spent on rent (the gross). The North Dakota capital of Bismarck ranks as the most affordable, while the city with the steepest monthly tab is Miami, where renters fork over more than a third of their paycheck every 30 days to the landlord. The most (and least) affordable US cities:

Most affordable

  1. Bismarck, North Dakota
  2. Sioux Falls, South Dakota
  3. Cheyenne, Wyoming
  4. Cedar Rapids, Iowa
  5. Fargo, North Dakota
  6. Charleston, West Virginia
  7. Casper, Wyoming
  8. Overland Park, Kansas
  9. Juneau, Alaska
  10. Anchorage, Alaska

Least affordable

  1. Jackson, Mississippi
  2. Oceanside, California
  3. Birmingham, Alabama
  4. Orlando, Florida
  5. Bridgeport, Connecticut
  6. Glendale, California
  7. Detroit
  8. New Haven, Connecticut
  9. Newark, New Jersey
  10. Miami
See how other cities ranked here. (Or check out cities where home prices doubled over 10 years.)

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