What rent costs in America
The median US rent is $1,948 a month as of August 2026. That is 2.6% higher than a year ago and 58.1% higher than a decade ago.
Source: Zillow Observed Rent Index (ZORI), smoothed and seasonally adjusted. 140 months of history, January 2015 to August 2026.
National rent since 2015
Every month Zillow has published for the country as a whole, not an average of the cities we track.
| Year | Median rent | Change |
|---|---|---|
| 2015 | $1,205 | — |
| 2016 | $1,246 | +3.4% |
| 2017 | $1,301 | +4.4% |
| 2018 | $1,356 | +4.2% |
| 2019 | $1,410 | +4% |
| 2020 | $1,434 | +1.7% |
| 2021 | $1,654 | +15.3% |
| 2022 | $1,769 | +7% |
| 2023 | $1,821 | +2.9% |
| 2024 | $1,873 | +2.9% |
| 2025 | $1,911 | +2% |
| 2026 (to August) | $1,948 | +1.9% |
What you need to earn
The common rule is to keep rent at or under 30% of gross income. At $1,948 a month, that means earning about $77,920 a year before tax. Over twelve months the rent itself comes to $23,376.
Run your own number →Most expensive cities
Highest median rents among the 822 cities over 50,000 people we track.
- 1San Francisco, CA$4,682
- 2Palo Alto, CA$4,678
- 3Mountain View, CA$4,536
- 4Cupertino, CA$4,375
- 5Newport Beach, CA$4,375
- 6Encinitas, CA$4,324
- 7New York, NY$4,154
- 8Redwood City, CA$4,146
- 9Yorba Linda, CA$4,118
- 10South San Francisco, CA$4,027
- 11Hoboken, NJ$3,989
- 12Santa Clara, CA$3,957
- 13Sunnyvale, CA$3,932
- 14San Mateo, CA$3,917
- 15Novato, CA$3,889
- 16Eastvale, CA$3,730
- 17Milpitas, CA$3,702
- 18Santa Barbara, CA$3,692
- 19Lakewood, CA$3,602
- 20Sammamish, WA$3,587
Least expensive cities
The other end of the same list, where the national median buys the most.
- 1Waterloo, IA$945
- 2Flint, MI$954
- 3Davenport, IA$971
- 4Terre Haute, IN$996
- 5Muncie, IN$1,002
- 6Albany, GA$1,008
- 7Edinburg, TX$1,029
- 8Fort Smith, AR$1,054
- 9Youngstown, OH$1,059
- 10Green Bay, WI$1,066
- 11Decatur, IL$1,067
- 12Pocatello, ID$1,074
- 13Dubuque, IA$1,076
- 14Evansville, IN$1,076
- 15Fargo, ND$1,079
- 16Anderson, IN$1,079
- 17La Crosse, WI$1,080
- 18Kokomo, IN$1,090
- 19Canton, OH$1,096
- 20Eau Claire, WI$1,100
Average rent in every state
Average of city medians within each state, cities over 15,000 people. Sorted most to least expensive.
| State | Avg rent | vs US | Cities |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hawaii | $2,930 | +50% | 9 |
| California | $2,913 | +50% | 311 |
| New York | $2,843 | +46% | 69 |
| Massachusetts | $2,702 | +39% | 68 |
| New Jersey | $2,587 | +33% | 63 |
| Washington D.C. | $2,517 | +29% | 1 |
| Vermont | $2,457 | +26% | 2 |
| Florida | $2,218 | +14% | 168 |
| New Hampshire | $2,185 | +12% | 9 |
| Virginia | $2,144 | +10% | 55 |
| Washington | $2,129 | +9% | 73 |
| Delaware | $2,102 | +8% | 5 |
| Rhode Island | $2,088 | +7% | 9 |
| Maryland | $2,064 | +6% | 56 |
| Connecticut | $2,040 | +5% | 25 |
| Colorado | $2,022 | +4% | 39 |
| Illinois | $1,901 | -2% | 111 |
| Maine | $1,865 | -4% | 10 |
| Nevada | $1,834 | -6% | 10 |
| Oregon | $1,824 | -6% | 38 |
| Alaska | $1,821 | -7% | 2 |
| Arizona | $1,805 | -7% | 38 |
| Utah | $1,784 | -8% | 43 |
| Georgia | $1,755 | -10% | 76 |
| South Carolina | $1,716 | -12% | 33 |
| Idaho | $1,688 | -13% | 18 |
| Tennessee | $1,676 | -14% | 38 |
| Minnesota | $1,668 | -14% | 52 |
| Texas | $1,649 | -15% | 174 |
| North Carolina | $1,641 | -16% | 67 |
| Montana | $1,640 | -16% | 7 |
| Mississippi | $1,583 | -19% | 22 |
| New Mexico | $1,572 | -19% | 11 |
| Pennsylvania | $1,531 | -21% | 34 |
| Michigan | $1,484 | -24% | 59 |
| Alabama | $1,470 | -25% | 39 |
| Ohio | $1,461 | -25% | 83 |
| Missouri | $1,449 | -26% | 44 |
| Indiana | $1,428 | -27% | 48 |
| Louisiana | $1,421 | -27% | 26 |
| Wisconsin | $1,420 | -27% | 43 |
| Nebraska | $1,410 | -28% | 10 |
| Kansas | $1,379 | -29% | 20 |
| Wyoming | $1,358 | -30% | 6 |
| Kentucky | $1,356 | -30% | 22 |
| Oklahoma | $1,327 | -32% | 30 |
| Arkansas | $1,322 | -32% | 25 |
| North Dakota | $1,230 | -37% | 9 |
| Iowa | $1,224 | -37% | 27 |
| South Dakota | $1,207 | -38% | 5 |
| West Virginia | $1,168 | -40% | 8 |
Common questions about US rent
What is the average rent in the United States?
The median asking rent in the US is $1,948 a month as of August 2026. That figure comes from the Zillow Observed Rent Index, which tracks what homes actually rent for rather than what landlords first list them at.
How much has US rent gone up?
US rent is up 2.6% over the past year, 23.9% over five years, and 58.1% over ten. In dollars, the national median went from $1,232 in August 2016 to $1,948 today.
What salary do you need to afford the average US rent?
Spending no more than 30% of gross income on rent, $1,948 a month needs about $77,920 a year before tax. That works out to $23,376 in rent over twelve months.
Which US city has the highest rent?
San Francisco, CA has the highest median rent of the 822 cities over 50,000 people that we track, at $4,682 a month.
Which US city has the cheapest rent?
Waterloo, IA is the least expensive city over 50,000 people in our data, with a median rent of $945 a month.