The Rent Is Too Damn High is an actual political party in New York City that has nominated candidates for mayor since 2005. But the Big Apple isn’t the place where rents are climbing fastest. SmartAsset set out to find the places where they’re rising more quickly.
In order to find the cities with the largest rent increases, SmartAsset gathered data on four factors. We considered 2013 median household incomes, 2016 median household incomes, 2013 average rent and 2016 average rent.
Key Findings
- Incomes matter: Rental prices in some of the most expensive markets in the country often make headlines. Take San Francisco, our data suggests renting the average place here costs over $3,800 per month, an enormous sum by most standards. But the average SF household earned over $103,000 in 2016, a figure which grew $26,000 from 2013. That growth has meant the rent is slightly less burdensome for San Francisco households than it might be. But in cities where incomes are not growing as fast, residents may be unable to keep up with rent. For example, in New Orleans, the top ranked city, average rent costs grew 36% while average household income only grew 5.6%.
- Sky-rocketing rent in the Golden State: Four of the top 16 cities with the largest rent increases are in California. The highest ranking California city is Los Angeles, followed by Oakland and Long Beach.
