These Cities Have the Cheapest Rent in the U.S.: July 2022

Since the pandemic, rent prices have risen through the roof, and many have stayed at elevated levels. Thankfully, that’s not true everywhere. There are many highly livable cities where rents remain affordable, and even some with rents that continue to fall sharply.

Away from expensive big cities on the coasts, there are several cities with cheaper rent. Many are edge cities and satellite suburbs like Baytown near Houston and Minneapolis‘ Brooklyn Park. Others are up-and-coming Silicon Prairie towns, such as Wichita, KS, Sioux Falls, SD, and Omaha, NE. But some of the best values are in big school college towns like Norman, OK, Tuscaloosa, AL, Lubbock, TX, and Ames, IA.

The cities with the cheapest apartments in the U.S.

The cities with the cheapest rent are almost exclusively found in the Midwest and South. They’re clustered in states like Texas, North Carolina and Minnesota.

Among cities with more than 50,000 residents, 20 have average monthly rents under $1,000. Some 28 cities of that size saw decreases in year-over-year rent, with 15 of them dropping over $100 a month.

Rent. looked at the average rent, dollar increase and year-over-year percent change in every U.S. city with a population over 50,000 for a combination of one- and two-bedroom unit types. Below are several key takeaways from that data.

Takeaway No. 1: Wichita, KS, enjoys the cheapest average rent in the U.S.

Wichita is a bustling, modern city with a young, multicultural population of nearly 400,000. It also carries the cheapest rent of any city in the nation by far, despite the fact that rents there are up 24.74 percent since last year.

The average rent for all apartment sizes in Wichita is just $719 a month, a $143 increase from the prior year. However, it remains consistently affordable. This is the third year in a row that The Air Capital can claim the title.

Wichita is also one of the largest among the 25 most affordable cities with nearly 390,000 residents. Three of the 10 cheapest cities for renters — Port Arthur, TX, Stillwater, OK, and Grand Forks, ND — have populations less than 56,000. The largest city in the top 30 is El Paso, TX, which ranked 26th with nearly 682,000 residents and an average monthly rent of $1,100.

The largest city overall among the cheapest is Houston with a population of 2,320,268. Ranked 98th, rents there average $1,598 a month. San Antonio is the only other city with a population of more than a million to land among the cheapest in the country.

Overall, 20 cities carry an average rent under $1,000 a month. That’s down from 21 last year and 29 two years ago. The South’s cheapest monthly rent is in Port Arthur, TX, at $811, ranking fourth. In fact, all cities in the top 44 are in the Midwest and South.

Tucson, AZ, at No. 56, has the lowest average rent in the West at $1,332 monthly. The most inexpensive city in the Northeast is Erie, PA, at $1,275 a month, ranked 45th overall.

Takeaway No. 2: The steepest decrease in average rent was in St. Louis, MO

Among every city with a population over 50,000, it’s the Midwest gateway metropolis of St. Louis, MO, that has seen the steepest drop in rent prices anywhere. Notably, it’s the second year in a row the city has seen such a decline.

Average rent among all apartment sizes in St. Louis is $1,296 a month. While that’s still just the 48th cheapest average rent in the country, it’s a 33.64 percent drop year-over-year, or $657. Both those figures lead the nation in rent price reduction. The city of 300,000-plus was once again the lone city to drop more than $500 a month. Baltimore, MD, was the only other city that experienced a decrease over $300, at $359.

Compared with the year prior, which saw metropolitan areas like Indianapolis and Charlotte, NC, experience big price dips, fewer larger cities saw big decreases in average rents year-over-year. In all, 12 cities saw rents decline by double-digit percentages.

The city in the South that had the greatest decrease is San Angelo, TX. The military town ranks second overall with a drop of almost 21 percent year-over-year, which puts rents at just $1,005 a month. In all, 15 cities saw a monthly decrease in rents over $100, with six of those over $200.

Takeaway No. 3: Texas has the most cities with the cheapest rent

Far and away, Texas is the best state to find cheap rent. Four of the 15 most affordable cities for renters — Victoria, Beaumont, Lubbock and Port Arthur — are in the Lone Star State. All of those boast monthly rents under $1,000, except for Beaumont, which comes in three dollars over. In all, an incredible 18 cities in Texas with populations over 50,000 are among the 100 cheapest rents in the nation.

Three different states — Alabama, Minnesota and North Carolina — also show dominance. Alabama has seven cities among the 100 lowest rents nationwide, Minnesota has four and North Carolina has six. Two Alabama cities — Tuscaloosa and Dothan— come in under $1,000 a month. In Minnesota, two of the four have decreased year over year. And in North Carolina, all six cities offer rents under $1,500 a month. Four of the top 10 and nine of the top 20 cheapest cities for rent are in the South. Over half of the top 100 — 55 cities — are in the Southern region.

Just four cities in the West fall inside the top 100, two are in Arizona and one each in New Mexico and California. Only one Northeast city — Erie, PA — reached the top 100.

The full list of cheapest places to rent

Overall, most cities with the cheapest rents are in the South and Midwest regions. Most of those are in Texas. But, if renters are willing to eschew the coastal big cities, there are many great options for affordable rents. Renters considering relocating can check out the full list of 100 cheapest cities for renters below and research available units and detailed rental prices at Rent.

Methodology

Rental data was pulled from Rent.’s multifamily rental property inventory for one- and two-bedroom units over July 2022 and July 2021. A single measure of price for all unit types per time period was calculated using a weighted average based on the number of available units. All cities with populations under 50,000 were excluded.

The U.S. Census divides the country into four geographic regions: Northeast (Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and Vermont); Midwest (Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota and Wisconsin); South (Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, District of Columbia and West Virginia) and West (Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Hawaii, Utah, Washington and Wyoming). The top 100 cities in our analysis were determined by U.S. Census Bureau population estimates.

The rent information included in this article is used for illustrative purposes only. The data contained herein do not constitute financial advice or a pricing guarantee for any apartment.