New Report: Cheapest Cities for Renters

Craig Johnson | March 24th, 2022

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Apartment rents are on the rise, according to a new report from Rent.com, which shows that the average rental rates for one- and two-bedroom apartments rose 24.4% and 21.8% respectively since February 2021.

But that data doesn’t mean that we’re all stuck with impossibly high rents. Thankfully, there are still some cities that are affordable. Rent.com’s list of cities with the cheapest rents proves just that.

Rent.com says it pulled the data in February 2022 and considered the average rental rates in U.S. cities with populations of more than 50,000. To be included, the cities also had to have a sizeable inventory of studio, one-bedroom and two-bedroom apartments.

Here Are the U.S. Cities With the Cheapest Rents

Cities	One-Bedroom Rent	2-Bedroom Rent
10. (tie) Des Moines, Iowa	$1,221	$1,393
10. (tie) Albuquerque, New Mexico	$1,165	$1,412
8. (tie) Winston Salem, North Carolina	$1,123	$1,373
8. (tie) Louisville, Kentucky	$1,179	$1,324
6. (tie) Memphis, Tennessee	$1,138	$1,201
6. (tie) Indianapolis, Indiana	$1,072	$1,298
4 (tie) San Antonio, Texas	$1,078	$1,304
4. (tie) Omaha, Nebraska	$983	$1,343
3. Baton Rouge, Louisiana	$1,056	$1,088
2. Fargo, North Dakota	$826	$936
1. Grand Forks, North Dakota	$800	$890

Read the complete report on Rent.com.

How To Save Money on Housing Costs

Money expert Clark Howard says that the COVID-19 pandemic showed many Americans that they can remain employed and move to a much more affordable place.

“Now that there are millions upon millions of Americans who work in jobs where they can work remotely, they have the ability to live one place for lifestyle or affordability and work somewhere else,” he says, “even with employers that require that you be in the office a few days a month.”

Clark says he recently read a New York Times article about hotels starting to cater to remote workers who have to come into the home office occasionally.

Clark says these “super commuters,” as the article calls them, are able to save big money on rent costs by not actually living in the major cities where their offices are located.

“And so people are coming in and they’re renting a home away from home for that week or month or days in a month or whatever,” he adds. “Even if they’re living way across the country, they’re saving so much money living in a more affordable place where they couldn’t afford a home, where they don’t have the long commutes, where the whole lifestyle thing is better.”

If you’ve got a work-from-home job, you could be saving a lot of money on housing costs by living in a cheaper locale.

There are even U.S. cities that will pay you to move there. Here’s a list of places.