States With the Highest Rents in 2022 | Best States

Rental markets for a one-bedroom apartment rose in states all across America in the last year, according to data from online listing marketplace Apartment List. The average rent estimate rose by at least 5% in all 47 reported states from June 2021 to June 2022, with 39 states seeing double-digit percent increases in that time. (Data is unavailable for Montana, West Virginia and Vermont.)

The nonpartisan data center USAFacts reports that for decades between 30% and 40% of U.S. households have been renting their homes. But nationwide rent surges disproportionately affect racial minorities, who rent at significantly higher rates than white Americans. According to U.S. Census data, less than 31% of white American households were renting their homes in 2019, compared to 59% of Black American households and 53% of Hispanic households. Black American households account for 20% of renter-occupied housing units despite making up just 8% of households overall.

Renters can expect to find the highest one-bedroom rents mostly in coastal states, with Hawaii’s average figure of $1,823 leading all reporting states and New York coming in next-highest at $1,703. After Hawaii, 12 of the top 13 states are located on the coasts, with 9th-ranked Colorado the lone exception.

These are the states with the highest one-bedroom rent estimates, according to Apartment List: 

  1. Hawaii ($1,823)
  2. New York ($1,703)
  3. California ($1,648)
  4. New Jersey ($1,516)
  5. Florida ($1,426)
  6. Massachusetts ($1,423)
  7. Virginia ($1,412)
  8. Maryland ($1,406)
  9. Colorado ($1,384)
  10. Washington ($1,360)

Every state in the dataset experienced higher rent estimates in June 2022 than a year prior. Florida’s rents surged the most both in terms of absolute increase and by percentage increase, with the one-bedroom estimates rising 22.6% ($263) year-over-year. Tennessee (18.6%), South Dakota (18.4%), New York (18.2%) and North Carolina (18.0%) rounded out the top five most pronounced percentage increases.

Most states have experienced even more pronounced increases since the start of the pandemic, including dramatic spikes in many Western states known for their natural beauty. From March 2020 through June, Idaho (45.8%), New Mexico (34.9%), Arizona (34.7%), Nevada (33.3%) and Utah (30.2%) all saw one-bedroom estimates increase by over 30%. Altogether, 45 of the 47 states saw rent prices increase by more than 10% over the 27-month period.

These states’ one-bedroom rent estimates increased the most since the start of the pandemic, according to Apartment List: 

  1. Idaho (45.8%)
  2. Florida (36.9%)
  3. Maine (35.3%)
  4. New Mexico (34.9%)
  5. Arizona (34.7%)
  6. New Hampshire (34.5%)
  7. Delaware (33.7)
  8. Nevada (33.3)
  9. Rhode Island (31.7%)
  10. Utah (30.2%)

At the onset of the pandemic, renters were protected by a federal moratorium on evictions, first as a provision in the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act and then imposed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In August 2021, the Supreme Court ruled the CDC’s moratorium unconstitutional.

link