States With The Highest And Lowest Rent In America For 2023

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 Zillow which releases the most timely and accurate data available on rents across the country. We specifically looked the Rental Listings –> Median Rent List Price ($), SFR, Condo/Co-op –> 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 | Photos)
2. California (Rent | Photos)
3. Maryland (Rent | Photos)
4. Washington (Rent | Photos)
5. Colorado (Rent | Photos)
6. New Jersey (Rent | Photos)
7. Massachusetts (Rent | Photos)
8. New York (Rent | Photos)
9. Virginia (Rent | Photos)
10. Florida (Rent | Photos)

Our take on the result is that New York data is heavily influenced by New York City’s data.

Based on our list of the most expensive states, we expected to see California in the top spot, but that didn’t happen. Instead, it flip flopped with our winner for the state with the highest rent.

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

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

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

And for reference, the median rent in America currently sits at $1,700 according to Zillow.

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

• Best Places By State
• Best Places To Live In America
• Most Dangerous States In America

How We Calculated The States With The Highest And Lowest Rent For January 2023

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 — Zillow.

Zillow provides monthly data on rents across America by state, select counties, and select cities. The current data runs through April 2019 even though it was released in June — there’s a bit of a lag in reporting.

That compares to the Census last release of data in November 2018 that only goes through 2017, so Zillow is way more up-to-date.

With all that in mind, we took the median rent for Rental Listings –> Median Rent List Price ($), SFR, Condo/Co-op –> State from Zillow’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 New York.

The best deal? Missouri 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.

The 10 States With The Highest Median Rent In America

1. Hawaii

Population: 1,453,498
Median Rent: $1,755

Detailed breakdown of rents in Hawaii.

2. California

Population: 39,455,353
Median Rent: $1,698

Detailed breakdown of rents in California.

3. Maryland

Population: 6,148,545
Median Rent: $1,485

Detailed breakdown of rents in Maryland.

4. Washington

Population: 7,617,364
Median Rent: $1,439

Detailed breakdown of rents in Washington.

5. Colorado

Population: 5,723,176
Median Rent: $1,437

Detailed breakdown of rents in Colorado.

6. New Jersey

Population: 9,234,024
Median Rent: $1,436

Detailed breakdown of rents in New Jersey.

7. Massachusetts

Population: 6,991,852
Median Rent: $1,429

Detailed breakdown of rents in Massachusetts.

8. New York

Population: 20,114,745
Median Rent: $1,390

Detailed breakdown of rents in New York.

9. Virginia

Population: 8,582,479
Median Rent: $1,326

Detailed breakdown of rents in Virginia.

10. Florida

Population: 21,339,762
Median Rent: $1,301

Detailed breakdown of rents in Florida.

The 10 States With The Lowest Median Rent In America

1. West Virginia

Population: 1,801,049
Median Rent: $770

Detailed breakdown of rents in West Virginia.

2. Arkansas

Population: 3,006,309
Median Rent: $803

Detailed breakdown of rents in Arkansas.

3. South Dakota

Population: 881,785
Median Rent: $809

Detailed breakdown of rents in South Dakota.

4. Kentucky

Population: 4,494,141
Median Rent: $826

Detailed breakdown of rents in Kentucky.

5. Mississippi

Population: 2,967,023
Median Rent: $830

Detailed breakdown of rents in Mississippi.

6. Iowa

Population: 3,179,090
Median Rent: $845

Detailed breakdown of rents in Iowa.

7. Alabama

Population: 4,997,675
Median Rent: $852

Detailed breakdown of rents in Alabama.

8. North Dakota

Population: 773,344
Median Rent: $853

Detailed breakdown of rents in North Dakota.

9. Oklahoma

Population: 3,948,136
Median Rent: $862

Detailed breakdown of rents in Oklahoma.

10. Ohio

Population: 11,769,923
Median Rent: $870

Detailed breakdown of rents in Ohio.

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.

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:

• Best Cities In America To Raise A Family
• Safest Cities By State
• Worst Places To Live By State