To afford living in a big city like San Francisco, California, you'd have to make double what most Americans earn, according to a May Moody's Analytics analysis.
Despite that, the San Francisco area is the only major metro where rent for one-bedroom apartments has actually decreased since 2019, according to data from Apartment List.
Rent in the area went from $2,435 in April 2019 to $2,281 in April 2024.
But that isn't the case for other metro areas across the United States that saw rent for one-bedroom apartments increase steadily since 2020.
CNBC Make It analyzed rent estimate data from Apartment List for April 2019 to April 2024, filtering metropolitan statistical areas, as defined by the Census Bureau, by those with at least 500,000 residents to find the metros with the biggest rent increases for a one-bedroom apartments.
Eight of the top 10 metro areas are in the Sun Belt region. Rents in each of these metros have increased over 37% since 2019.
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The U.S. metro area where rent has increased the most since 2019: Knoxville, TN
Money Report
The Knoxville, Tennessee metro area saw rent for one-bedroom apartments increase the most from 2019 to 2024.
Rent in the area went from $582 to $907, or a 55.8% increase.
Knoxville's cost of living is 15% lower than the national average, while housing expenses are 29% higher.
The city is home to the University of Tennessee and is close to other major cities, including Nashville, Chattanooga, and Atlanta.
10 U.S. metro areas where rent for a 1-bedroom apartment has increased the most since 2019
- Knoxville, TN
- Albuquerque, NM
- Greensboro-High Point, NC
- Dayton-Kettering, OH
- Tucson, AZ
- El Paso, TX
- North Port-Sarasota-Bradenton, FL
- Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater, FL
- Miami-Fort Lauderdale-Pompano Beach, FL
- Providence-Warwick, RI-MA
Albuquerque, New Mexico ranked as the No. 2 metro with the biggest rent increases for 1-bedroom apartments since before the covid-19 pandemic.
Rent for 1-bedroom apartments increased 49.5% from $646 to $966 from 2019 to 2024. The metro area was the No. 2 in the west, with the biggest rent increase for one-bedroom apartments after Honolulu, Hawaii.
Albuquerque is the largest city in New Mexico and the state's economic capital, according to Britannica. It is about 60 miles from the state's capital, Sante Fe.
Cost of living in the city is 7% lower than the national average, according to PayScale. The city's housing expenses and utility prices both fall below the national average as well.
Greensboro-High Point in North Carolina is the third metro on the list. The area saw a 44.3% increase in rent for one-bedroom apartments from 2019 to 2024, going from $657 to $948.
The Greensboro-High Point metro area is part of The Piedmont Triad region in north-central North Carolina.
It is the state's manufacturing base, according to The New York Times. High Point is also known as the world's home furnishings capital, while Greensboro and Winston-Salem, the other cities in the Triad, specialize in textiles and tobacco.
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