She wanted to leave an expensive city. Then she found the “cheap” ones aren’t cheap anymore
A renter who left Seattle for Michigan posted a video about what she found, and it's the kind of thing that sounds like an exaggeration until you check it.
American is shock, she has always lived in expensive cities with expensive rents
— Wall Street Apes (@WallStreetApes) August 20, 2026
But now she’s moved to a state and city that’s not a major city and the rents are still high. She’s looking online and finding everywhere is high, it doesn’t matter where you go
“I think I've… pic.twitter.com/tinDJmPVEj
"I knew there was a rent crisis going on, I know that rent is high everywhere, but I didn't know that rent is high everywhere," she said. The place she looked at ran $1,600 for a one-bedroom, in a town where the minimum wage is $13.73 against Seattle's $21.30, so she'd taken a big pay cut without much of a rent cut.
So we ran her comparison properly, in hours of work rather than dollars.
The two cities are within six minutes of each other
A typical Seattle one-bedroom costs $2,484 a month. At Seattle's minimum wage of $21.30, covering it takes 116.6 hours of work before taxes.
That $1,600 Michigan one-bedroom, at Michigan's $13.73 minimum, takes 116.5 hours.
The difference is about six minutes a month. In hours of labor, which is the only currency that matters when you're comparing two places with different pay, she'd be moving 2,000 miles for nothing.
Why the cheap cities stopped being cheap
Her instinct that something changed is correct, and our data can date it. We took every big city, sorted them by what they cost in 2020, and measured how much each group has risen since.
2020 price tier | Average rent 2020 | Average rent 2026 | Growth |
|---|---|---|---|
Cheapest third | $997 | $1,402 | +41.2% |
Middle third | $1,281 | $1,727 | +34.8% |
Priciest third | $1,788 | $2,371 | +32.5% |
The cities that were cheapest in 2020 have risen fastest since, by nearly nine percentage points over the expensive ones. Remote work sent people hunting for bargains, they all found the same handful of affordable metros, and the bargain got bid away. Wages in those places didn't follow, and that's the wall she ran into.
Where the move still works
The honest caveat is that $1,600 is high for Michigan, so she's probably looking in one of its pricier corners. Across the state our data has one-bedroom rents well below what she found, and the hours math changes completely depending on the town.
Michigan city | One-bedroom | Hours at $13.73 |
|---|---|---|
$1,513 | 110 | |
$1,234 | 90 | |
$987 | 72 | |
$887 | 65 |
Detroit at 72 hours and Lansing at 65 are real savings against Seattle's 117, so the move can absolutely pay. Ann Arbor at 110 hours barely moves the needle, and the $1,600 unit she found doesn't move it at all, which is why she's right to be annoyed.
That's the practical lesson buried in her video. The state you pick matters far less than the specific town, because the spread inside Michigan is wider than the spread between Michigan and Seattle. Anyone planning this kind of move should price a few towns in hours of their own pay before signing anything, since the headline reputation of a state tells you almost nothing.
We found the same trap in Detroit, where cheap rent meets low wages, and mapped which markets got easier or harder in our affordability comparison.
Sources
Yahoo Lifestyle, for the renter's account and quotes
Michigan Department of Labor and Economic Opportunity, for the $13.73 state minimum wage effective January 1, 2026
Seattle Office of Labor Standards, for the $21.30 city minimum wage
RentDataNow city rent data, anchored to the Zillow Observed Rent Index, June 2020 and June 2026
Frequently Asked Questions
Are cheaper cities still cheaper to rent in?
Less than they were. The cities that ranked cheapest in 2020 have seen rent rise 41.2% since, against 32.5% for the priciest third. Local wages did not rise to match, so the advantage narrowed sharply.
How do you compare rent between cities with different wages?
Convert rent into hours of work at the local wage. A $2,484 Seattle one-bedroom takes 116.6 hours at the city's $21.30 minimum, and a $1,600 Michigan one-bedroom takes 116.5 hours at the state's $13.73 minimum, so the two are effectively identical.
Is it worth moving from an expensive city to a cheaper one?
It depends on the specific town rather than the state. A Detroit one-bedroom takes about 72 hours of minimum-wage work and Lansing 65, both far below Seattle's 117. Ann Arbor at 110 hours delivers almost no gain.
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Henry Jo is a housing analyst covering rent data, affordability, city comparisons, and much more. He started following rental data while apartment hunting in two cities at once, and he lives in the Pacific Northwest.
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