US cities where rent is rising the fastest
Abilene, TX leads US rent growth at +30.8% year-over-year, fueled by tight housing supply and continued in-migration.
The 25 large US cities where rent rose fastest in the last 12 months, sorted by year-over-year percentage change. Figures use ZORI April 2026 versus the same month a year earlier. Population minimum 100,000; outlier rents above $20,000/mo excluded.
Abilene, TX tops the list at +30.8% YoY, with median rent now $1,751/month.
| # | City | YoY change | Median rent | Population |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Abilene, TX | +30.8% | $1,751 | 128,053 |
| 2 | San Francisco, CA | +20.1% | $4,101 | 830,235 |
| 3 | Fresno, CA | +14.0% | $1,886 | 545,970 |
| 4 | Cedar Rapids, IA | +13.4% | $1,227 | 137,264 |
| 5 | New York, NY | +10.8% | $3,927 | 8,483,844 |
| 6 | Richmond, VA | +10.4% | $1,678 | 229,359 |
| 7 | Rochester, NY | +10.3% | $1,532 | 208,772 |
| 8 | Cleveland, OH | +10.2% | $1,425 | 366,097 |
| 9 | New Haven, CT | +10.2% | $2,240 | 134,349 |
| 10 | Rockford, IL | +10.1% | $1,199 | 147,521 |
| 11 | Green Bay, WI | +10.1% | $1,114 | 106,253 |
| 12 | Sterling Heights, MI | +10.0% | $1,603 | 133,573 |
| 13 | Las Cruces, NM | +9.9% | $1,389 | 114,197 |
| 14 | Toledo, OH | +9.8% | $1,122 | 267,463 |
| 15 | Reno, NV | +9.2% | $1,877 | 273,212 |
| 16 | Daly City, CA | +9.2% | $2,762 | 101,964 |
| 17 | Fort Wayne, IN | +8.9% | $1,232 | 268,589 |
| 18 | Sparks, NV | +8.9% | $1,988 | 110,024 |
| 19 | Topeka, KS | +8.8% | $1,224 | 125,786 |
| 20 | Sunnyvale, CA | +8.7% | $3,628 | 154,236 |
| 21 | Yonkers, NY | +8.6% | $2,772 | 209,978 |
| 22 | Norfolk, VA | +8.6% | $1,748 | 233,596 |
| 23 | Chesapeake, VA | +8.5% | $2,036 | 252,583 |
| 24 | Brownsville, TX | +8.3% | $1,661 | 189,177 |
| 25 | New Bedford, MA | +7.9% | $1,962 | 100,998 |
Key findings
- Abilene, TX saw the steepest year-over-year rent increase at +30.8%.
- Cities with constrained housing supply and growing employment are overrepresented.
- The Northeast and Midwest are returning to the leaderboard after years of Sunbelt-led growth.
- Even at the top, current YoY increases are far below the 15–25% surges of 2021–2022.
Why these cities are rising
Rent acceleration concentrates in metros with three conditions: net in-migration, low multifamily completions per capita, and strong wage growth in industries that anchor the local labor force. When all three line up, rent rises faster than the metro can absorb.
For the opposite trend, see cities where rent is dropping fastest. Click any city for the full 10-year price history and what salary covers the current median rent.
Median rent figures use Zillow's Observed Rent Index (ZORI) for the most recent published month. ZORI is a smoothed, repeat-rent index that tracks the typical asking rent for the middle tier of the housing market in each city, designed to be less noisy than raw asking-rent listings.
The universe is US cities with at least 100,000 residents per the latest US Census ACS 5-year estimate. ZORI markets above $20,000/month are excluded as statistical outliers (these are typically luxury submarkets, not citywide medians). Year-over-year change compares the current month to the same calendar month one year earlier.
Rent-burden calculations use median household income from the US Census ACS 5-year estimate (most recent vintage), divided into annualized rent (median rent × 12). The federal "rent-burdened" threshold is 30% of household income.
The full underlying dataset is available as a CSV for verification, republishing, or extending the analysis.
↓ cities-where-rent-is-rising-fastest.csvThese findings and the accompanying dataset are released under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. You are free to republish, including commercially, as long as you credit RentDataNow and link back to this page so readers can verify the underlying data.
RentDataNow Data Team (2026). "US cities where rent is rising the fastest." RentDataNow. Retrieved from https://rentdatanow.com/studies/cities-where-rent-is-rising-fastest
- ZORI (Zillow Observed Rent Index) — monthly city-level median rent, smoothed repeat-rent methodology. Public download at zillow.com/research/data.
- US Census ACS 5-year estimates — Table B25064 (median gross rent), B19013 (median household income), B01003 (total population). US Census Bureau, latest published vintage.
- HUD Fair Market Rents — used as a sanity check on bedroom-level breakdowns. US Department of Housing and Urban Development.
- RentDataNow city pages — every row in the rankings links to the full underlying time series, bedroom breakdown, and salary-vs-rent analysis for that city.
RentDataNow publishes original research grounded in ZORI rent data, BLS wage data, HUD Fair Market Rents, and US Census demographics. Every study includes the underlying numbers, methodology, and sources so readers can verify or extend the analysis.
RentDataNow is an independent service and is not affiliated with, sponsored by, or endorsed by Zillow Group, Inc., the U.S. Census Bureau, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, or any government agency. ZORI (Zillow Observed Rent Index), the American Community Survey, Fair Market Rents, and other product names are trademarks of their respective owners, used here for identification only. Figures are provided "as is" without warranty of accuracy or completeness, and any reuse is at your own risk. See our Terms of Service for full terms.