Ample living space, affordable rent and nice weather for a walk to the park could be your trifecta for finding the perfect apartment. The cities below come the closest to offering ideal renter conditions.
To find the best cities for renters, we scored the 100 largest U.S. cities using apartment data from Apartments.com, weather and disaster risk data from harbor, park information from The Trust for Public Land, and other data sources.
Plano serves up relatively spacious apartments, and its affordability makes it an attractive spot to settle in. Plano doesn’t have the cheapest rent—in fact it ranks down at No. 73 out of 100 for low rent. But the city’s high median household income of over $95,000 means that Plano has a low ratio of rent to income (20% of median income would be spent on the average 2-bedroom apartment).
Plano is also a good bet if you’re looking for an apartment with a new or updated kitchen (one-third of rentals have stainless steel appliances) and a gym (90% have them). Notably, you generally won’t pay more for an apartment with a pool or gym in Plano, unlike other cities where such amenities can jack up the rent.
Rates for violent crimes and burglaries are low. As an added bonus, almost all rental units in Plano allow pets. Just be prepared for the Texas heat.
Plano’s score: 844 out of 1,000
Having a pool and gym right where you live sounds great, but how much are you willing to pay for the convenience? Nationwide, a pool will add an average of 10% to rent. But in cities such as Plano, Texas, and Henderson, Nevada, a pool doesn’t add to the average one-bedroom rent, according to data from Apartments.com.
The worst city for paying extra for a pool? New York City, with a pool “premium” of 47%. Other cities with high additional rent for pools are Long Beach, California, Milwaukee and Chicago.
Having a gym in the building adds an average of 11% to rent. The highest gym premiums are in Honolulu (50% extra), Detroit (45% extra) and Long Beach, California (31% extra), according to Apartments.com.
| red credit cards | Blue Credit Card | Black Card |
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| pink card | Blue 1 | Grey |
| Red 1 | Blue 2 | Grey 1 |
| Red 2 | Blue 3 | Grey 2 |
| Red 3 | Blue 4 | Grey 3 |
The worst city for paying extra for a pool? New York City, with a pool “premium” of 47%. Other cities with high additional rent for pools are Long Beach, California, Milwaukee and Chicago.
One of the main reasons people buy a home is to build wealth. The common line is: “Why pay
someone else’s mortgage and contribute to their equity (via rent) when you can spend the same amount of money or less and reap the rewards?”
But, if you’re in a pricey area, that wealth can quickly get eaten up by a mortgage that resembles a tapeworm—constantly sucking up funds as your bank account shrinks. This is what’s bluntly referred to as being “house poor.”
If you live in an expensive metro, you can eschew the tiny house with a huge price tag and move to greener—and cheaper—pastures. After all, cheaper doesn’t necessarily mean worse.
One of the main reasons people buy a home is to build wealth. The common line is: “Why pay someone else’s mortgage and contribute to their equity (via rent) when you can spend the same amount of money or less and reap the rewards?”
One of the main reasons people buy a home is to build wealth. The common line is: “Why pay someone else’s mortgage and contribute to their equity (via rent) when you can spend the same amount of money or less and reap the rewards?”
One of the main reasons people buy a home is to build wealth. The common line is: “Why pay someone else’s mortgage and contribute to their
The worst city for paying extra for a pool? New York City, with a pool “premium” of 47%. Other cities with high additional rent for pools are Long Beach, California, Milwaukee and Chicago.
A solid apartment-hunting plan includes a checklist of needs and wants, and unfortunately those might not always align. For example, you might want a kitchen with stainless steel appliances, but if you own a dog, you need to find a place that allows pets, which could significantly limit your search results. Or if you’re a remote employee who needs extra space for a home office, you need space for your work.
There’s a good chance you’ll be able to hit that sweet spot in the venn diagram where your needs and wants intersect with a good price. Keep an eye out for the apartment trends below.
“There are certainly many more apartment deals to be found than there has been in a long time, says David Pierce, senior business analyst at Apartments.com. “I would absolutely call it a renters’ market.”
In many cities, the pandemic coincided with a surge in development and construction, which has resulted in landlords dangling deals to attract renters to sign new leases. It’s not uncommon to find buildings that are offering discounts that exceed more than one month of free rent.
A good example is San Francisco, says Pierce. In the winter of 2019, about one in 50 buildings in the city were offering discounts that exceeded one month’s rent. Currently, about one in three buildings are offering similar discounts, and “33% is unheard of” before the pandemic, says Pierce.
He observes that the discounts have had an effect on monthly rent overall. When you have a high percentage of buildings offering discounts, you see a flatline of rents. “It’s hard to raise rents when the building next door is offering two months free on a 12-month lease,” says Pierce.
The demand for larger apartments had an immediate spike at the onset of the pandemic, according to Pierce. Pre-pandemic, the search volume for 2-bed/2-bath units was around 35% of apartment searches. By April and May of 2020, that search volume increased to 40%. Three-bedroom units saw a similar uptick, while 1-bed/1-bath and 2-bed/1-bath units saw a relative downturn in searches.
Post-pandemic, the desire for bigger living spaces might stay high. While many American workers will return to their offices, a portion will see remote work become a permanent way of life. The post-Covid recovery period could see three to four times as many people working from home than before the pandemic, according to an analysis by McKinsey & Company.
Interested in a new apartment but don’t want to have to meet people in-person? You might have the option to tour an apartment remotely. While virtual tours are not new, it’s become a safe alternative for apartment hunters to check out a potential rental while keeping their distance.
Several years ago, it was harder to find 3-D tours or “click-thru” tours, which allow users to virtually move room to room to check out the space. But the technology has come a long way and it’s much more common, says Pierce at Apartments.com.
“A lot of people have been introduced to virtual tours because of the circumstances,” says Pierce. But he notes that while virtual tours will be common post-pandemic, most renters will still want to see an apartment in-person and get a feel for the neighborhood.
One of the most overlooked aspects of moving to a new city is its risk for natural disasters. Some disasters are obvious and well-covered by the media, like hurricanes slamming the Atlantic coast or wildfires on the West Coast. Some renters can forget to factor in the inconvenience and costs of disasters such as winter storms, heatwaves, earthquakes and flash floods, all which can have devastating effects.
“It’s very human nature to think that where we move can be similar to where we are from,” says Dan Kessler, CEO of harbor, a website and app that helps people with emergency planning and disaster preparedness. Kessler adds that some folks move to a new area and do very little research into what natural disasters might impact their lives.
Fortunately, disaster preparedness is a solvable problem. With an understanding of what types of natural disasters affect an area, you can do simple things that go a long way to ensuring your safety if disaster strikes. Kessler says that one of the biggest mistakes people make in their disaster preparedness (aside from doing nothing) is doing things they don’t need to be doing.
For example, Kessler says some folks might focus on getting mace for home break-ins but fail to check the batteries in their smoke detectors. Or people might stock four months worth of food for the freezer but not think about how a long power outage could spoil the food.
Kessler recommends starting by focusing on the basic stuff. These are core components that can prepare you for a wide variety of disasters:
Renters insurance can easily drop to the bottom of a to-do list. But for a relatively small monthly cost you can lock in the best renters insurance that could save you financially after a disaster.
The average cost of renters insurance is $193 a year, according to Forbes Advisor’s data. It will provide coverage for your belongings if they’re damaged or destroyed in a fire, tornado, explosion or other problem covered by the policy.
Renters may not realize that a renters insurance policy also gives you liability coverage in case you’re sued—for example, if your dog bites someone. And a policy will reimburse you for additional living expenses while your apartment is uninhabitable due to damage.
Renters insurance for co-living situations provides all of the above, too.
We scored the 100 largest U.S. cities based on the following measurements.
Apartment qualities: 35% of score
Having enough space in your apartment and good amenities can affect your general happiness. And with the trend toward working from home, having a roomy apartment becomes even more important.
We scored average square footage for one- and two-bedroom rentals and the percentage of units in a city that have a pool, gym, in-unit washer and dryer, and stainless steel kitchen appliances (an indicator of a new or updated kitchen). We also scored the percentage of units that allow pets.
Source: Apartments.com, a leading apartment-listing website that connects renters to more than 1 million available units across the country. Apartments.com’s research team collects and verifies information such as availability, monthly rents, pet policies, apartment amenities and more. Apartments.com also provided data on new construction of rental units.
Apartment affordability: 35% of score
We evaluated apartment affordability by scoring each city’s median household income, average rents for one- and two-bedroom apartments, and the percent of median salary that would be spent on a two-bedroom rental.
Sources: Average rent: Apartments.com Median household income: U.S. Census Bureau
Weather and natural disasters: 10% of score
A great apartment is less enjoyable if you have to frequently deal with severe weather or escape from disasters such as hurricanes or wildfires. We scored each city based on the risk of heatwaves, wildfires, floods, hurricanes, snow storms, tornadoes, earthquakes and volcanoes.
Source: harbor, a platform that allows users to assess their specific risks based on location, household details and more, and delivers actionable and customized plans that walk them through step-by-step tasks to increase everyday readiness. Harbor’s mission is to help people, families and communities form everyday habits so they can be more ready and resilient for all of life’s emergencies: from climate change to kitchen fires. Download the app or visit harbor’s website to get a personalized risk score.
Getting outside: 10% of score
Opportunities to enjoy fresh air are important when you don’t have a yard. We scored the percent of a city’s population within a 10-minute walk to a park and the percent of each city devoted to parkland.
Source: The Trust for Public Land, a conservation organization that believes in “the power of land for people.” The Trust for Public Land works to protect public ownership of land; create parks, playgrounds and gardens; develop trails for public use; put parks within walking distance; and help communities generate public funds for parks and conservation.
Crime: 10% of score
Our scoring included the rates of violent crime and burglary in every city.
Source: FBI Uniform Crime Reporting Program, 2019 crime data. We used 2018 data when 2019 wasn’t available.
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opportunities to enjoy fresh air are important when you don’t have a yard. We scored the percent of a city’s population within a 10-minute walk to a park and the percent of each city devoted to parkland.
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