With last year’s rental prices having grown at nearly double the rate of any previous year, the personal-finance website WalletHub recently released its report on 2022’s Best & Worst Places to Rent in America.
To help prospective renters get the most bang for their buck, WalletHub compared more than 180 U.S. cities based on 22 key indicators of rental attractiveness and quality of life. The data set ranges from historical rental-price changes to the cost of living to job availability.
The best locations for renters are Columbia, Md., Overland Park, Kan., Sioux Falls, S.D., Bismarck, N.D., Lincoln, Neb., Chandler, Scottsdale and Gilbert, Ariz., El Paso, Texas and Casper, Wyo.
The worst spots for renters were Augusta, Ga., Ontario, Canada, Vancouver, Wash., Shreveport, La., Columbus, Ga., New Orleans, Cleveland, San Bernardino, Calif., Memphis, Tenn. and Detroit.
The best versus worst takeaways were:
- Cheyenne, Wyo. had the highest rental affordability, with the lowest median annual gross rent divided by median annual household income at 15.43 percent, which is 2.4 times lower than in Hialeah, Fla., the city with the highest at 37.74 percent.
- Little Rock, Ark. had the highest rental vacancy rate, 12 percent, which is 7.5 times higher than in Nashua, N.H. and South Burlington, Vt., the cities with the lowest at 1.60 percent.
- Newark, N.J. had the highest share of renter-occupied housing units, 76.50 percent, which is 3.6 times higher than in Port St. Lucie, Fla., the city with the lowest at 21.20 percent.
- Brownsville, Texas, had the lowest cost-of-living index, 73, which is 2.7 times lower than in New York, the city with the highest at 195.
- Irvine, Calif., had the fewest violent crimes (per 1,000 residents), 0.51, which is 46.1 times fewer than in Memphis, the city with the most at 23.52.