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Beat the high rent blues: 4 strategies that work
Dreaming of living in New York City? Los Angeles? Can’t even imagine being able to afford rent in these high-end cities?
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If expensive home prices have forced you to rent, you should at least get the best renting experience for your money.
About 45 million Americans rent homes with a record high 22.4 million households spending more than 30% of their income on rent and utilities in 2022, according to a study by Harvard University’s Joint Center for Housing Studies.
If you’re forced to spend money on rent, you may want more than just an affordable roof over your head, housing advocates say. You might also want to know that you have tenant law on your side if there’s ever an issue and a great quality of life, including easy public transportation, entertainment and job opportunities.
To find the cities that offer the whole package, ApartmentAdvisor researched 98 cities nationwide to determine the best and worst cities for renters. Raleigh, North Carolina, was the most rent-friendly city, while Akron, Ohio, was the least friendly, it said.
Below is a breakdown of some of ApartmentAdvisor’s findings.
What cities are best for renters?
The three most renter-friendly cities, according to ApartmentAdvisor, are:
◾ Raleigh, North Carolina: Raleigh’s one of the fastest-growing cities in the country, but what makes it remarkable is that its pace of building new homes has kept up with demand. It’s not the cheapest place to rent, with the median one-bedroom rent costing $1,263 a month, but rent is decreasing year over year after hitting a pandemic peak in August 2022. The main drawback is that tenant protections aren’t as strong as in some other cities.
◾ Huntsville, Alabama: At $863, Huntsville has one of the lowest monthly median rents for a one-bedroom apartment on the list. Like Raleigh, it has a high number of new residential construction permits and a healthy vacancy rate, but fewer tenant protection laws. Rents are also dropping in Huntsville, making the share of income required to rent well below 30%. Generally, renters should try to spend no more than 30% of their annual gross income on housing.
◾ Oakland, California: Rent control laws, high vacancy rates and a high average number of days on the market for apartment listings give this northern California city a boost. However, with the median one-bedroom rent at $1,941 a month and the median yearly income at $79,304, a lot of your annual gross income (29%) will be spent on housing.
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Which cities are the worst for renters?
The least renter-friendly cities are:
◾ Akron, Ohio: Lagging new supply has substantially pushed up rents in the past year. The median cost of a one-bedroom is $750 a month, which is low when compared to some other cities but is high for Akron. A year ago, the median rent there was $700.
◾ El Paso, Texas: El Paso has seen some relief in rent prices in the past year, but it’s still the Texas city with the least new residential construction on ApartmentAdvisor’s list, so availability remains a challenge. The monthly median one-bedroom rent is $831.
◾ Fort Wayne, Indiana: Fort Wayne is another Midwest city that suffers from a lack of new housing supply. The median one-bedroom rent was $888 in June. That’s low when compared to many other U.S. cities, but it’s up from $800 a year ago.
Aside from housing availability and costs, these cities’ “lower desirability scores also pushed them further down in our rankings,” said Lilly Milman, ApartmentAdvisor.com’s editor.
Major cities like New York City and Boston also ranked at the bottom, coming in at numbers six and nine, respectively. “These cities rate high for desirability and both have robust landlord-tenant laws on the books, but both are notoriously competitive rental markets with substantial rent growth driving higher rent burden,” Milman said.
Medora Lee is a money, markets, and personal finance reporter at USA TODAY. You can reach her at mjlee@usatoday.com and subscribe to our free Daily Money newsletter for personal finance tips and business news every Monday through Friday morning.
