November rental data reveals pricey reality for apartment dwellers in these ten cities
Apartments are generally seen as a (somewhat) budget-friendly housing option. But according to new data from Dwellsy, that’s far from the case in these ten expensive cities.
Los Altos, CA (December 2022)—’Tis the season to laugh at feel-good holiday movies. But the Hollywood cliché that bugs Jonas Bordo more than the whirlwind romances in small-town snowstorms is the apartments. The CEO and cofounder of Dwellsy notes that even if a character grooms dogs or serves coffee for a living, their NYC walk-up is always welcoming, cozy, and well-appointed, not a studio where the stove is crammed up against the bathtub.
“The reality is that in some U.S. cities, even modest apartments are pricey indeed—we’re talking over $3,000 a month,” says Bordo. “And across the U.S., new data shows that asking rent for apartments has risen 9.2 percent in the past year. So if you’re renting in the real world, you’d better have a well-paying job to fund that trendy apartment, especially in the ‘big city.’”
Nationwide, November’s median asking rent for an apartment was $1,660. But in Naples-Marco Island, Florida—the most expensive city for apartment dwellers—median apartment rent was almost twice that at $3,200 a month. Apartments in New York weren’t far behind, costing renters $3,145 per month.
“I can offer a silver lining, though: In the past year, seven of the ten most expensive cities for apartment dwellers saw rent increases of less than 9 percent,” says Bordo. “That means rent inflation was below the national average. So while renters in Boston and San Francisco had to budget quite a bit for their apartments, they didn’t experience the same sticker shock that afflicted renters in other areas of the country.”
Bordo believes that having hard data on which cities are most expensive for apartment-dwellers is important for individuals and households who may be relocating, or who simply want to know how their city fits into the broader rental market.
“If you’re just browsing rental listings in various cities, it can be nearly impossible to pick out developing trends and plan for the future,” he says. “It’s also tough to determine which prices are fair, especially since median asking rent can fluctuate significantly month-to-month.”
Dwellsy, the largest home rental listing platform in the country, regularly mines its 13+ million verified residential rental listings for statistics and data. Because Dwellsy allows landlords to post listings free of charge, it has a pool of data that’s more diverse—and more representative of the true rental landscape—than that of pay-to-play listing services. Each month, Dwellsy breaks down this data regionally across the U.S. so renters and landlords can see up-to-date trends in rental housing and current affordability in their area.
Here, Bordo shares the ten most expensive American cities by apartment rent:
November 2022
“While the exact rankings on this list have shifted around since last month, the cities on it have stayed the same,” Bordo concludes. “So if you’re dreaming of a picture-perfect holiday season in a fantastic new apartment, you might want to search the listings elsewhere.
“But no matter where you live, here’s a bit of good news to bring you some seasonal cheer: Rent prices across the country decreased from August to October and are now stabilizing. Hopefully, 2023 won’t be characterized by the rent inflation we saw in 2022.”
About Jonas Bordo
Jonas Bordo is the CEO and cofounder of Dwellsy, the free residential rental marketplace that makes it easy to find hard-to-find rentals. Prior to cofounding Dwellsy, Jonas was a senior executive at several leading real estate firms including Essex Property Trust and BentallGreenOak, and was with the Boston Consulting Group after graduating with his MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. Jonas has had the good fortune to build, rebuild, and lead amazing teams across the multifamily and commercial real estate operational and strategic spectrum; orchestrate the sale of several businesses; develop a strategic plan for one of the world’s leading symphony orchestras; implement a Toyota production system; and create more than 40 brands. He is husband to Rosalind and father to Bailey, Zach, and Thea; an avid hiker; a lifelong learner; and a maker of things, sometimes out of wood.
About Dwellsy
Dwellsy is the renter’s marketplace: a comprehensive residential home rentals marketplace based on the radical concept that true, organic search in a free ecosystem creates more value than the pay-to-play model embraced by all of the current rental listing services. Dwellsy has more than 13 million residential rental listings—more than any legacy classifieds site—as well as the most diverse set of listings, including single family rentals, condos, and apartments. Dwellsy’s entirely different approach to residential rental listings focuses on presenting houses and apartments based on features renters need and want, not based on how much landlords pay to show their listings. Dwellsy investors include Frontier Ventures, Ulu Ventures, Blackhorn Ventures, Heroic Ventures, Anne Wojcicki, and the University of Chicago. For more information, please visit our newsroom or find your next home at Dwellsy.com.
