The most rent-burdened cities in America
In New York, NY, the typical renter spends +58.6% of household income on rent — among the highest rent burdens of any large US city.
"Rent-burdened" means more than 30% of household income goes to rent — the federal threshold for housing-cost stress. This ranking lists the 25 large US cities where the typical renter is most rent-burdened, using ZORI April 2026 median rent versus Census ACS median household income.
In New York, NY, the typical renter spends +58.6% of household income on rent — far above the 30% affordability threshold.
| # | City | Rent burden | Median rent | Median HH income |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | New York, NY | +58.6% | $3,927 | $80,483 |
| 2 | Miami, FL | +57.9% | $3,012 | $62,462 |
| 3 | Miami Gardens, FL | +53.2% | $2,823 | $63,627 |
| 4 | Hialeah, FL | +52.3% | $2,423 | $55,594 |
| 5 | Newark, NJ | +49.3% | $2,138 | $52,060 |
| 6 | New Haven, CT | +47.3% | $2,240 | $56,851 |
| 7 | El Monte, CA | +43.4% | $2,462 | $68,030 |
| 8 | Paterson, NJ | +43.1% | $2,010 | $55,997 |
| 9 | Bridgeport, CT | +42.9% | $2,099 | $58,685 |
| 10 | Gainesville, FL | +42.4% | $1,634 | $46,195 |
| 11 | Pompano Beach, FL | +42.3% | $2,371 | $67,195 |
| 12 | Boston, MA | +42.1% | $3,413 | $97,344 |
| 13 | Inglewood, CA | +42.0% | $2,548 | $72,750 |
| 14 | Cleveland, OH | +41.9% | $1,425 | $40,801 |
| 15 | Hollywood, FL | +41.9% | $2,347 | $67,203 |
| 16 | New Bedford, MA | +41.3% | $1,962 | $56,981 |
| 17 | Hartford, CT | +41.3% | $1,596 | $46,411 |
| 18 | El Cajon, CA | +40.6% | $2,286 | $67,511 |
| 19 | Palmdale, CA | +40.4% | $2,752 | $81,770 |
| 20 | Los Angeles, CA | +40.3% | $2,755 | $81,939 |
| 21 | Detroit, MI | +40.2% | $1,338 | $39,938 |
| 22 | Elizabeth, NJ | +40.1% | $2,224 | $66,555 |
| 23 | East Los Angeles, CA | +40.0% | $2,289 | $68,741 |
| 24 | Syracuse, NY | +40.0% | $1,592 | $47,819 |
| 25 | Yonkers, NY | +39.8% | $2,772 | $83,549 |
Key findings
- New York, NY is the most rent-burdened large US city, with rent eating +58.6% of median household income.
- All 25 cities on this list exceed the federal 30% rent-burden threshold for the typical household, not just the bottom quartile.
- The list mixes expensive coastal metros (where rent is high) with college towns and tourism-driven cities (where median income is low).
- Rent burden is more predictive of household financial stress than rent price alone — a $3,500/mo rent is affordable on a $200k income, but $1,800/mo isn't on a $45k income.
How rent burden compounds
The 30% threshold is conservative; once a household crosses 40%, the share of bills going unpaid, credit-card delinquency rates, and eviction filings all climb sharply. Cities high on this list are where housing policy debates are most active and where the gap between wage growth and rent growth is widest.
For affordability from the other angle, see the cheapest US cities to rent in. Click any city for its full ZORI history and the salary required to keep rent under 30% of income.
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.
↓ most-rent-burdened-cities-in-america.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). "The most rent-burdened cities in America." RentDataNow. Retrieved from https://rentdatanow.com/studies/most-rent-burdened-cities-in-america
- 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.