As of May 2026, the median asking rent across 65,806 live apartment listings in the United States is $1,835 per month. Half of tracked units are priced below that line, half above it. The middle-two-quartile range, where two out of three listed units fall, is $1,445 to $2,440.
Every figure below is computed from live asking prices we collect from apartment communities' own leasing websites, spanning 4,797 properties in 652 cities and 45 states. No statistical imputation. No landlord survey. If a number moved, it is because the underlying listing did.
Live data snapshot
Based on 65,806 units in 652 cities across 45 states, as of May 21, 2026.
The full rent distribution, not just the average
Collapsing a national rental market into a single "average" number loses almost everything that matters. Our 10th-percentile unit lists at $1,150. Our 90th-percentile unit lists at $3,141. That is a 2.7x spread within one country, inside one month. The mean rent of $2,048 sits above the median of $1,835 because the luxury tail pulls the average upward. The histogram below is where the market actually is, bucket by $500 bucket.
Where the market actually sits
The biggest bucket is $1,400 to $2,000, holding 36.2% of 65,806 tracked units.
| Price band | Units | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Under $1,000 | 3,735 | 5.7% |
| $1,000 to $1,400 | 11,013 | 16.7% |
| $1,400 to $2,000 | 23,816 | 36.2% |
| $2,000 to $3,000 | 19,265 | 29.3% |
| $3,000 to $4,000 | 5,743 | 8.7% |
| $4,000 to $5,000 | 1,443 | 2.2% |
| $5,000 and up | 791 | 1.2% |
The modal bucket, meaning the single $500 price band holding the largest share of live listings, is the place to anchor expectations. If you are searching for a generic apartment with no specific city or size in mind, the odds are best you end up inside that band. The further you sit from it, the more you should expect to pay or compromise.
Median rent by bedroom count
A national median across every bedroom size hides the variable readers most often care about. A studio rents at $1,654. A one-bedroom at $1,699. A two-bedroom at $2,026. A three-bedroom at $2,202. The 1BR-to-2BR gap is the single most useful number when deciding whether to add a roommate: on a 50/50 split, a 2BR almost always wins.
Rent by bedroom count
Quartiles show where the middle 50% of each bedroom bucket lives. A wide P25 to P75 spread means the market is bimodal, value plus luxury, rather than clustered around one number.
| Size | 25th pct | Median | 75th pct | Units |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Studio | $1,355 | $1,654 | $2,083 | 6,512 |
| 1 bedroom | $1,367 | $1,699 | $2,225 | 30,243 |
| 2 bedroom | $1,564 | $2,026 | $2,739 | 23,594 |
| 3 bedroom | $1,743 | $2,202 | $2,888 | 4,798 |
| 4+ bedroom | $1,075 | $1,900 | $2,686 | 659 |
Side-by-side with Zillow and RentCafe
This is the comparison the big index publishers do not print. Our live-listing median, next to the most recent public figures from Zillow's ZORI and RentCafe's national average. The gaps are not measurement error. They are the signature of how each source aggregates.
Side by side: our live-listing data vs. the big indexes
Every row shows what our 65,806 live units currently say, and what Zillow's ZORI model or RentCafe's Yardi feed said the last time we checked their public pages (March 2026).
| Metric | average-rent.com | Zillow ZORI | RentCafe | Gap vs ZORI | Gap vs RentCafe |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| US median asking rent (all beds) | $1,835 | $2,054 | $1,845 | -10.7% | -0.5% |
| Our figure is the 50th percentile of live listings. ZORI is a statistical estimate. RentCafe is a property-management database average. | |||||
| US median, 1-bedroom | $1,699 | not published | $1,721 | — | -1.3% |
| Zillow does not publish a national 1BR breakout on its public consumer page. RentCafe does. | |||||
| US median, 2-bedroom | $2,026 | not published | $2,072 | — | -2.2% |
| Same as above: Zillow keeps bedroom splits inside the report; RentCafe publishes a number. | |||||
What the ZORI gap tells you
If our figure sits above ZORI, the market of currently-listed units is richer than Zillow's modeled "typical rent" for the middle of the market. If it sits below, we are capturing more of the longer-tail, cheaper supply. Neither is wrong. They measure different things.
What the RentCafe gap tells you
RentCafe's number is weighted toward the Yardi-managed professional-apartment inventory. It tends to run below our median in markets where Class A purpose-built inventory is a smaller share of what is available to rent today.
Competitor figures last verified March 2026 against Zillow's public research page and RentCafe's national average apartment rent chart. Zillow, ZORI, RentCafe, and Yardi are trademarks of their respective owners.
12 months of real movement, not an index-smoothed line
Below is the month-by-month median for the last 12 months, drawn from a daily snapshot of every unit in our database. The dashed amber line is a rolling 3-month average, the same smoothing operation that index publishers apply to their series. Look at how much of the real movement the smoothed line erases. RentCafe's public national chart reads flat for the roughly 30 months from mid 2023 through early 2026. The raw medians below did not.
Median rent over the last 12 months
Real monthly medians. No seasonal adjustment. No index smoothing.
Showing 3 months of available history.
State-by-state medians
At the state level the gap is a full order of magnitude wider than the national figure suggests. The three most expensive states in our dataset are averaging over $3,867. The three cheapest states still average under $925. Every row in the table below links to a dedicated state-level rent-trend page with a proper cohort of cities.
Median rent by state
Sorted high to low. Click any state for a deeper regional breakdown.
| State | Median | P25 to P75 | Properties | Units |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| District Of Columbia | $3,867 | $3,415 to $4,797 | 6 | 103 |
| Hawaii | $3,562 | $2,200 to $4,017 | 9 | 89 |
| Massachusetts | $3,045 | $2,433 to $3,604 | 128 | 1,183 |
| California | $2,808 | $2,335 to $3,266 | 740 | 6,806 |
| New Jersey | $2,695 | $2,439 to $3,244 | 18 | 174 |
| Maryland | $2,475 | $2,156 to $2,694 | 8 | 100 |
| Rhode Island | $2,438 | $2,305 to $2,496 | 7 | 10 |
| Connecticut | $2,420 | $1,893 to $3,063 | 26 | 269 |
| Florida | $2,248 | $1,797 to $2,809 | 385 | 5,885 |
| Wisconsin | $2,195 | $1,620 to $2,773 | 37 | 671 |
| Virginia | $2,165 | $1,670 to $2,690 | 105 | 1,057 |
| South Carolina | $2,065 | $1,746 to $2,448 | 40 | 508 |
| Colorado | $1,965 | $1,701 to $2,437 | 200 | 3,194 |
| New York | $1,930 | $1,579 to $2,467 | 82 | 524 |
| New Hampshire | $1,925 | $1,680 to $2,089 | 9 | 21 |
| Illinois | $1,920 | $1,382 to $2,360 | 141 | 1,176 |
| Nevada | $1,878 | $1,636 to $2,249 | 54 | 999 |
| Georgia | $1,875 | $1,585 to $2,284 | 152 | 2,189 |
| Oklahoma | $1,872 | $1,335 to $2,458 | 17 | 225 |
| Tennessee | $1,865 | $1,423 to $2,311 | 116 | 3,043 |
| Washington | $1,830 | $1,516 to $2,419 | 144 | 2,114 |
| Utah | $1,825 | $1,449 to $2,240 | 61 | 569 |
| Oregon | $1,800 | $1,496 to $2,285 | 111 | 938 |
| Arizona | $1,787 | $1,540 to $2,115 | 177 | 3,249 |
| Kansas | $1,777 | $1,405 to $2,214 | 32 | 383 |
| Minnesota | $1,770 | $1,445 to $2,295 | 95 | 865 |
| Idaho | $1,702 | $1,607 to $2,035 | 7 | 26 |
| North Carolina | $1,689 | $1,417 to $2,135 | 191 | 3,345 |
| Michigan | $1,610 | $1,323 to $2,025 | 105 | 483 |
| Pennsylvania | $1,600 | $1,200 to $1,971 | 54 | 711 |
| Ohio | $1,574 | $1,203 to $1,954 | 68 | 769 |
| New Mexico | $1,564 | $1,235 to $1,860 | 101 | 873 |
| Arkansas | $1,558 | $1,366 to $1,740 | 8 | 30 |
| Missouri | $1,547 | $1,216 to $1,845 | 99 | 763 |
| Texas | $1,544 | $1,272 to $1,976 | 999 | 20,559 |
| Alaska | $1,500 | $1,275 to $2,000 | 3 | 29 |
| Indiana | $1,495 | $1,150 to $2,000 | 64 | 257 |
| Louisiana | $1,285 | $1,050 to $1,611 | 47 | 476 |
| Nebraska | $1,275 | $1,064 to $1,652 | 17 | 139 |
| Mississippi | $1,235 | $900 to $1,298 | 5 | 23 |
| Alabama | $1,233 | $1,029 to $1,559 | 44 | 524 |
| Kentucky | $1,230 | $1,035 to $1,501 | 34 | 335 |
| Iowa | $1,070 | $985 to $1,283 | 40 | 79 |
| South Dakota | $935 | $718 to $1,050 | 4 | 18 |
| North Dakota | $925 | $798 to $1,038 | 7 | 23 |
Where rent is cheapest and where it is most expensive, city by city
The single cheapest city in our rankings is Wichita Falls, TX at $814. The single most expensive is Boston, MA at $4,672. That is a 5.7x gap inside the same country, inside the same month. Any national "average rent" figure that does not account for this variance is reporting a statistic with no policy or budget relevance.
10 cheapest markets
Minimum 3 tracked properties per city.
- 1 Wichita Falls, TX $814
- 2 Bossier City, LA $828
- 3 Amarillo, TX $912
- 4 Columbus, GA $948
- 5 Fargo, ND $969
- 6 Mcallen, TX $1,005
- 7 Albany, GA $1,007
- 8 Mission, TX $1,017
- 9 Yuma, AZ $1,024
- 10 Osceola, IA $1,040
10 most expensive markets
Minimum 3 tracked properties per city.
- 1 Boston, MA $4,672
- 2 Washington, DC $4,663
- 3 Brooklyn, NY $4,583
- 4 Mountain View, CA $4,544
- 5 San Mateo, CA $4,057
- 6 Sunnyvale, CA $3,933
- 7 Honolulu, HI $3,863
- 8 San Francisco, CA $3,769
- 9 San Jose, CA $3,723
- 10 Fremont, CA $3,645
The rent-to-income reality check
The federal definition of a cost-burdened household is one that spends 30% or more of gross income on housing. We join our live rent medians to Census median household income data and compute the burden percentage per city. The rows below that sit in rose are the markets where the typical household cannot rent the typical apartment without exceeding the federal cost-burdened threshold.
Rent-to-income reality check
Annual rent divided by Census median household income for the same city. The federal cost-burdened threshold is 30%. Shaded rows are over.
| City | Avg rent | Annual rent | Median income | Burden |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Santa Ana, CA | $3,245 | $38,940 | $88,354 | 44.1% |
| Houston, TX | $2,270 | $27,240 | $62,894 | 43.3% |
| Los Angeles, CA | $2,878 | $34,536 | $80,366 | 43.0% |
| San Antonio, TX | $2,033 | $24,396 | $62,917 | 38.8% |
| Charlotte, NC | $2,377 | $28,524 | $78,438 | 36.4% |
| Nashville, TN | $2,277 | $27,324 | $75,197 | 36.3% |
| Atlanta, GA | $2,302 | $27,624 | $81,938 | 33.7% |
| Minneapolis, MN | $2,167 | $26,004 | $80,269 | 32.4% |
| Dallas, TX | $1,771 | $21,252 | $67,760 | 31.4% |
| Irvine, CA | $3,257 | $39,084 | $129,647 | 30.1% |
| Denver, CO | $2,229 | $26,748 | $91,681 | 29.2% |
| Albuquerque, NM | $1,571 | $18,852 | $65,604 | 28.7% |
| Seattle, WA | $2,853 | $34,236 | $121,984 | 28.1% |
| Addison, TX | $1,858 | $22,296 | $82,858 | 26.9% |
| Austin, TX | $2,014 | $24,168 | $91,461 | 26.4% |
| Lewisville, TX | $1,627 | $19,524 | $85,002 | 23.0% |
| Cary, NC | $2,103 | $25,236 | $129,399 | 19.5% |
| Carrollton, TX | $1,581 | $18,972 | $99,115 | 19.1% |
| Allen, TX | $1,785 | $21,420 | $129,130 | 16.6% |
| Mckinney, TX | $1,580 | $18,960 | $120,273 | 15.8% |
Two things to notice. First, how many metros exceed 30%: this is the modern affordability problem stated numerically. Second, the cheapest-rent cities on the ranking above are not always the most affordable cities on this ranking. A market with low rents but lower incomes can still be more cost-burdened than a high-rent market with high incomes. Headline rent without income context is misleading.
How we compute this, and why it differs from Zillow and RentCafe
How we calculate this, and why it differs from Zillow and RentCafe
Every number on this page comes from a live asking price we collected from an apartment community's own leasing website, the same page a prospective tenant would see. We do not apply a statistical model. We do not survey landlords. We publish what is on the market right now, refreshed every morning.
Today that means 65,806 individual units across 4,797 properties in 652 cities, including studios to 4+ bedrooms.
Zillow's ZORI is a model, not a listing
The Zillow Observed Rent Index estimates the typical rent for the middle of the market in a given region, using a statistical model that weights repeat rentals across Zillow's listing database. It is useful for long-horizon macro comparisons. It is not a count of actual listed units. A ZORI figure reflects Zillow's estimate of the market, not the raw asking prices available to rent today.
RentCafe's public chart smooths the movement away
RentCafe publishes a national average apartment rent drawn from Yardi's property-management database. The published chart reads as a near-flat line from mid 2023 through early 2026, which is an artifact of how averages and index smoothing erase the monthly signal. Raw month-to-month medians across live listings do not sit flat for two and a half years. If you ran a landlord portfolio, you would never price at the index.
NMHC Quick Facts is the industry-size citation, not a rent figure
The National Multifamily Housing Council's Quick Facts page is the gold-standard reference for the size of the apartment industry: roughly 23.4 million apartment homes in 5+ unit buildings nationwide, around 39.1 million apartment renters, and a national vacancy rate updated quarterly. Those are the right numbers for industry-scale framing. They are not asking-rent figures, and they update on an annual or quarterly cadence rather than daily. We pair the NMHC totals with our live-listing coverage on a dedicated page so the seam between the two is explicit. Cite NMHC for the universe; cite us for the live asking price inside it.
What you get here instead
- The raw distribution: 10th, 25th, 50th, 75th, and 90th percentile asking rents. Indices collapse this to one number.
- Bedroom-by-bedroom quartiles so you can see what a studio actually rents for versus a 2 bedroom.
- Live city rankings, not metro-level aggregates that hide intra-market variance.
- Unsmoothed month-to-month medians, including the outlier months indices normally average out.
- A refresh timestamp on every chart, so you always know how stale what you are reading is.
Zillow, ZORI, and RentCafe are trademarks of their respective owners. This comparison is offered as methodology context. Ratings refer to public methodology documentation as of April 2026.
Explore the underlying data
Everything on this page is drillable. Click any city in the rankings to jump to a city-specific listings page with property-level detail. Use the interactive national map to filter by bedroom count, price band, or neighborhood. Check how it works for the full ingestion pipeline. Or head to a deeper regional cut below.
- How much does an apartment cost in America?: the same dataset, angled at budget-first readers.
- Insights: refreshed market snapshots, freshness timestamps, and the running data log.
- Every city we track: drop into any covered metro and see live listings, neighborhood filters, and trend charts.