States With The Highest And Lowest Rent In America For 2023


Using data from Zillow, we ranked the states from the highest rent to the lowest. New York and California topped the list.

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Editor’s Note: We updated this article for 2023.

States With The Highest Rent In America Map

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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)
What state has the highest rent in America?

According to the most recent data from Zillow, New York has the highest rent in America with a median rent of $3,200 a month.

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)
What state has the lowest rent in America?

Turns out to be a tie between Missouri and West Virginia with median rents of $1,000.

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:

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

Hawaii

Source: Wikipedia

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

Detailed breakdown of rents in Hawaii.

2. California

California

Source: Wikipedia

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

Detailed breakdown of rents in California.

3. Maryland

Maryland

Source: Wikipedia

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

Detailed breakdown of rents in Maryland.

4. Washington

Washington

Source: Wikipedia

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

Detailed breakdown of rents in Washington.

5. Colorado

Colorado

Source: Wikipedia

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

Detailed breakdown of rents in Colorado.

6. New Jersey

New Jersey

Source: Wikipedia

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

Detailed breakdown of rents in New Jersey.

7. Massachusetts

Massachusetts

Source: Wikipedia

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

Detailed breakdown of rents in Massachusetts.

8. New York

New York

Source: Wikipedia

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

Detailed breakdown of rents in New York.

9. Virginia

Virginia

Source: Wikipedia

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

Detailed breakdown of rents in Virginia.

10. Florida

Florida

Source: Wikipedia

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

West Virginia

Source: Wikipedia

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

Detailed breakdown of rents in West Virginia.

2. Arkansas

Arkansas

Source: Wikipedia

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

Detailed breakdown of rents in Arkansas.

3. South Dakota

South Dakota

Source: Wikipedia

Population: 881,785
Median Rent: $809

Detailed breakdown of rents in South Dakota.

4. Kentucky

Kentucky

Source: Wikipedia

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

Detailed breakdown of rents in Kentucky.

5. Mississippi

Mississippi

Source: Wikipedia

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

Detailed breakdown of rents in Mississippi.

6. Iowa

Iowa

Source: Wikipedia

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

Detailed breakdown of rents in Iowa.

7. Alabama

Alabama

Source: Wikipedia

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

Detailed breakdown of rents in Alabama.

8. North Dakota

North Dakota

Source: Wikipedia

Population: 773,344
Median Rent: $853

Detailed breakdown of rents in North Dakota.

9. Oklahoma

Oklahoma

Source: Wikipedia

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

Detailed breakdown of rents in Oklahoma.

10. Ohio

Ohio

Source: Wikipedia

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:

About Chris Kolmar

Chris Kolmar has been in the real estate business for almost ten years now. He originally worked for Movoto Real Estate as the director of marketing before founding HomeSnacks.

He believes the key to finding the right place to live comes down to looking at the data, reading about things to do, and, most importantly, checking it out yourself before you move.

If you've been looking for a place to live in the past several years, you've probably stumbled upon his writing already.

You can find out more about him on LinkedIn or his website.