RentDataNow's best big cities for renters

Most best-for-renters rankings blend in job growth, amenities, and cost of living. We built ours from three things a renter actually feels: how much rent takes from a local paycheck, whether rent sits below or above the city's own history, and which direction it's moving right now.

Arizona takes four of the top ten spots, and Texas four more. As of September 2026, Mesa leads the country.

How we scored it

Each city gets three sub-scores, weighted and summed to 100. Affordability, worth 40%, is rent as a share of the local median renter income, where a lower share scores higher. Value, worth 35%, is our Rent Reality Score, which measures whether rent sits below the level a city's own rent history predicts. Trend, worth 25%, rewards flat or falling rent over the past year. A city wins by being cheap against local wages, underpriced against itself, and not climbing.

1. Mesa, Arizona

Mesa wins on the rarest combination in the table: rent that's both affordable and actively falling. At $1,540 it takes 22.3% of the local renter income, and it dropped 1.4% over the past year. Its Rent Reality Score of 90 says rent sits far below what the city's own history would predict, which is our clearest single signal that a renter isn't overpaying. Phoenix's building boom spilled across the whole metro, and Mesa is where the math landed best.

2. Glendale, Arizona

Glendale is the value pick. Its Rent Reality Score of 95 is the highest of any large city we track, meaning rent there is more underpriced against its own trend than anywhere else. Add a 2.8% drop over the past year and a $1,511 typical rent, and you get a market where the leverage sits with the renter. The only thing keeping it out of first is a slightly higher income share than Mesa's.

3. Plano, Texas

Plano posts the best pure affordability number in the top 30. Rent of $1,722 against a median renter income above $112,000 works out to 18.4%, comfortably the lowest share on the list, and rent has been flat for a year. It's a case where high local incomes, not cheap rent, do the work, since $1,722 isn't low in absolute terms. For a renter earning near the local median, nowhere stretches the paycheck less.

4. Gilbert, Arizona

Gilbert is the third Arizona suburb in the top four, and it runs on the same engine as Plano: strong incomes carrying a higher rent. At $2,068 it's the priciest city in the top five, but a median renter income above $122,000 pulls the share down to 20.2%. Rent ticked up just 1.3%, and a Rent Reality Score of 82 says even that price is reasonable against the city's trend.

5. Garland, Texas

Garland is the one to watch for anyone renting on a tighter budget. At $1,512 it's among the cheapest in the top 30, and it posted the steepest decline of any city here, down 4.3% over the past year. It sits at the center of the Dallas metro's Vietnamese community, and its rent reversing while neighbors climb is exactly the kind of soft market where a renter can negotiate.

The pattern across the whole top of the list is Sun Belt cities that built. Arizona and Texas approved apartments aggressively through the boom, and the metros that added the most supply are now the ones where rent is flat, falling, or cheap against local wages. It's the same finding that showed up when we asked whether rent freezes lower rent and traced where the renter's market is ending: building is what moves the number.

One honest limit on the ranking. It scores rent, value, and trend, not commute, jobs, schools, or weather, so a high place here means a good deal on an apartment rather than a verdict on the city. Check any of these on its RentDataNow city page for the current figure before you move.

Sources

• RentDataNow city rent data for the 85 largest US cities, anchored to the Zillow Observed Rent Index, June 2026

• US Census Bureau, American Community Survey, table B25119, median renter household income