The US cities with the widest rent gap between ZIP codes
New York's expensive ZIP codes rent for twice its cheap ones. Oakland's rent for 18 percent more. A ranking of 86 US cities by internal rent spread, using ZIP-level ZORI for July 2026.
In New York, the ZIP code at the 90th percentile of rent costs $5,108 a month. The ZIP code at the 10th percentile costs $2,570. That ratio, 1.99, is the second widest among the 86 US cities with enough ZIP-level rent data to measure.
RentDataNow ranked those cities by the ratio of their 90th-percentile ZIP rent to their 10th-percentile ZIP rent, using Zillow Observed Rent Index figures for July 2026. A city needed at least 10 ZIP codes with rent data to qualify. The median city on the list sits at 1.48, so its expensive ZIP codes run about half again the price of its cheap ones. In 41 of the 86 cities, the 90th percentile is at least 1.5 times the 10th.
New York's spread is the widest in dollars among large cities at $2,538 a month. Its cheapest measured ZIP is 10309 in Richmond County, at $2,014. Its priciest is 10007 in New York County, at $8,847. Both are inside the same city, and both are served by the same municipal government.
| # | City | ZIPs | 10th pct rent | Median | 90th pct rent | Gap | Ratio |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Naples, FL | 14 | $2,164 | $2,690 | $7,108 | $4,944 | 3.29 |
| 2 | New York, NY | 147 | $2,570 | $3,114 | $5,108 | $2,538 | 1.99 |
| 3 | Chicago, IL | 51 | $1,481 | $1,864 | $2,826 | $1,345 | 1.91 |
| 4 | Tallahassee, FL | 10 | $1,263 | $1,510 | $2,320 | $1,056 | 1.84 |
| 5 | Phoenix, AZ | 43 | $1,252 | $1,539 | $2,287 | $1,035 | 1.83 |
| 6 | Arlington, TX | 12 | $1,267 | $1,770 | $2,308 | $1,040 | 1.82 |
| 7 | Fort Wayne, IN | 10 | $1,015 | $1,116 | $1,818 | $803 | 1.79 |
| 8 | Baton Rouge, LA | 11 | $927 | $1,317 | $1,648 | $721 | 1.78 |
| 9 | Fresno, CA | 13 | $1,333 | $1,604 | $2,317 | $984 | 1.74 |
| 10 | Tucson, AZ | 25 | $1,114 | $1,463 | $1,908 | $794 | 1.71 |
| 11 | Tampa, FL | 16 | $1,550 | $1,976 | $2,653 | $1,104 | 1.71 |
| 12 | Las Vegas, NV | 42 | $1,362 | $1,764 | $2,303 | $941 | 1.69 |
| 13 | El Paso, TX | 16 | $1,118 | $1,318 | $1,888 | $770 | 1.69 |
| 14 | Bakersfield, CA | 10 | $1,427 | $1,754 | $2,391 | $964 | 1.68 |
| 15 | Austin, TX | 37 | $1,378 | $1,688 | $2,307 | $929 | 1.67 |
| 16 | Dallas, TX | 40 | $1,258 | $1,601 | $2,104 | $846 | 1.67 |
| 17 | Houston, TX | 90 | $1,150 | $1,540 | $1,901 | $751 | 1.65 |
| 18 | San Diego, CA | 33 | $2,472 | $3,012 | $4,078 | $1,605 | 1.65 |
| 19 | Albuquerque, NM | 16 | $1,158 | $1,440 | $1,894 | $736 | 1.64 |
| 20 | Memphis, TN | 22 | $976 | $1,252 | $1,584 | $608 | 1.62 |
| 21 | Mesa, AZ | 13 | $1,369 | $1,624 | $2,194 | $825 | 1.60 |
| 22 | Wichita, KS | 17 | $977 | $1,193 | $1,562 | $585 | 1.60 |
| 23 | Buffalo, NY | 20 | $1,229 | $1,488 | $1,961 | $732 | 1.59 |
| 24 | Los Angeles, CA | 96 | $2,259 | $2,702 | $3,604 | $1,345 | 1.59 |
| 25 | Lincoln, NE | 15 | $993 | $1,359 | $1,583 | $591 | 1.59 |
| 26 | Indianapolis, IN | 31 | $1,234 | $1,411 | $1,945 | $711 | 1.58 |
| 27 | Long Beach, CA | 11 | $1,895 | $2,312 | $2,957 | $1,062 | 1.56 |
| 28 | Spokane, WA | 11 | $1,204 | $1,563 | $1,873 | $669 | 1.56 |
| 29 | Lexington, KY | 12 | $1,314 | $1,534 | $2,042 | $728 | 1.55 |
| 30 | Honolulu, HI | 10 | $2,203 | $2,658 | $3,418 | $1,215 | 1.55 |
The full ranking of all 86 cities is available as a CSV download.
Naples ranks first on 14 ZIP codes
Naples, Florida tops the table at 3.29, with a 10th percentile of $2,164 and a 90th of $7,108. That figure rests on 14 ZIP codes in a resort market where waterfront and inland housing sit close together. It is the smallest sample in the top five, and the ratio should be read with that in mind. New York's 1.99 is calculated across 147 ZIP codes.
Los Angeles has the largest extremes and a mid-table spread
Los Angeles contains both a $1,806 ZIP code and a $12,540 one, a range of 6.9 times that is the largest of any city measured. On the 90th-to-10th-percentile measure it ranks mid-table at 1.59. The gap between those two readings is the point: the $12,540 figure comes from 90272 in Pacific Palisades, and a single ZIP code at the top of a 96-ZIP city moves the maximum without moving the body of the market.
Ranking by highest-to-lowest would have produced a list of cities that happen to contain one expensive postcode. The percentile measure describes where most of a city's rental stock actually sits.
Oakland is the flattest market measured
Oakland, California has the narrowest spread on the list at 1.18, with a 10th percentile of $2,354 and a 90th of $2,764. Sarasota, Madison, New Orleans, and Chattanooga follow. A renter priced out of one Oakland ZIP code faces roughly the same rent in most of the others.
| # | City | ZIPs | 10th pct rent | Median | 90th pct rent | Gap | Ratio |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Oakland, CA | 12 | $2,354 | $2,594 | $2,764 | $411 | 1.18 |
| 2 | Sarasota, FL | 11 | $1,991 | $2,140 | $2,372 | $381 | 1.19 |
| 3 | Madison, WI | 11 | $1,481 | $1,693 | $1,775 | $294 | 1.20 |
| 4 | New Orleans, LA | 15 | $1,468 | $1,617 | $1,774 | $306 | 1.21 |
| 5 | Chattanooga, TN | 11 | $1,422 | $1,513 | $1,722 | $300 | 1.21 |
| 6 | Richmond, VA | 10 | $1,568 | $1,731 | $1,907 | $339 | 1.22 |
| 7 | Toledo, OH | 10 | $999 | $1,119 | $1,219 | $220 | 1.22 |
| 8 | Saint Paul, MN | 12 | $1,321 | $1,437 | $1,614 | $293 | 1.22 |
| 9 | Norfolk, VA | 11 | $1,568 | $1,696 | $1,924 | $356 | 1.23 |
| 10 | Raleigh, NC | 15 | $1,462 | $1,592 | $1,809 | $347 | 1.24 |
Chicago ranks third at 1.91
Chicago's 10th-percentile ZIP rents for $1,481 and its 90th for $2,826, across 51 ZIP codes. Its cheapest measured ZIP, 60636, sits at $1,373. Its priciest, 60601 in the Loop, sits at $3,044.
Rent figures are Zillow Observed Rent Index (ZORI) values at the ZIP code level for July 2026, the most recent month published. ZORI is a repeat-listing index of asking rents for the single-family, condo, and multifamily stock Zillow observes. It measures asking rents on listed units, not rents paid across all occupied housing, and it is a smoothed and seasonally adjusted series.
For each city, ZIP codes were grouped by the city name Zillow assigns to them. Cities with fewer than 10 ZIP codes carrying a July 2026 rent value were excluded, which left 86 cities. For each city we computed the 10th percentile, median, and 90th percentile of ZIP-level rent, then divided the 90th by the 10th.
The 90th-to-10th ratio was chosen over highest-to-lowest because the latter is set by a single ZIP code at each end. Los Angeles illustrates the difference: it ranks first on highest-to-lowest at 6.9 times and 24th on the percentile measure. Both figures are published in the CSV.
ZIP code boundaries do not follow municipal boundaries exactly, and a ZIP labeled with a city name may extend past that city's limits. Counts of ZIP codes per city vary widely, from 10 to 147, so a ratio computed on 10 ZIP codes carries more sampling noise than one computed on 147.
The full underlying dataset is available as a CSV for verification, republishing, or extending the analysis.
↓ widest-rent-gaps-between-zip-codes.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, "The US cities with the widest rent gap between ZIP codes," September 2026. https://rentdatanow.com/studies/widest-rent-gaps-between-zip-codes
- Zillow Research, Zillow Observed Rent Index (ZORI), ZIP code series, July 2026 release.
- RentDataNow analysis of 7,779 ZIP-level ZORI series, July 2026.
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