In April 2026, half of American apartment listings rent for under $1,931 a month and half rent for more. Studios rent for $1,735, one-bedrooms for $1,843, two-bedrooms for $2,345, and three-bedrooms for $2,018. Every number on this page pulls from 12,485 live listings across 1,412 apartment properties in 132 cities, refreshed daily from apartment leasing pages.
The American apartment market, by bedroom
Bedroom count splits the US apartment market into four tiers. Individual renters sign most of the studios and one-bedrooms. Couples and roommate pairs fill the two-bedrooms. Families and larger shared households take the three-bedrooms. Each card below shows the national median for that size, with the middle-50% band around it.
Studio
$1,735
median / month
P25 to P75: $1,420 to $2,267
1 bedroom
$1,843
median / month
P25 to P75: $1,436 to $2,419
2 bedroom
$2,345
median / month
P25 to P75: $1,695 to $3,160
3 bedroom
$2,018
median / month
P25 to P75: $1,425 to $3,254
Rent by bedroom count
Quartiles show where the middle 50% of each bedroom bucket lives. A wide P25 to P75 spread means the market is bimodal, value plus luxury, rather than clustered around one number.
| Size | 25th pct | Median | 75th pct | Units |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Studio | $1,420 | $1,735 | $2,267 | 1,937 |
| 1 bedroom | $1,436 | $1,843 | $2,419 | 5,918 |
| 2 bedroom | $1,695 | $2,345 | $3,160 | 3,838 |
| 3 bedroom | $1,425 | $2,018 | $3,254 | 648 |
| 4+ bedroom | $669 | $749 | $1,413 | 144 |
Five variables drive the US rent number
Five variables drive every apartment price in the country. Each one pulls the rent by a different amount, and together they explain why a national median can feel irrelevant once a specific apartment enters the picture.
- Bedroom count. The one-to-two-bedroom jump costs roughly 27% more nationally. The two-to-three-bedroom step is typically a smaller percentage gain within the same building.
- City. The widest variable. The cheapest and most expensive cities in our rankings stand 5.6x apart in average rent, a larger gap than bedrooms, neighborhood, or age combined.
- Neighborhood. Inside a single city, the cheapest and most expensive tracked neighborhoods run 2 to 3x apart. The per-city pages on this site break that out.
- Unit age and amenities. A 2015-or-newer Class A lease-up with a pool and fitness center commands 20 to 40% more than a 1970s unit on the same block.
- Lease term and concessions. The quoted price assumes a 12-month lease. Three- and six-month terms add a premium. Operators sitting on vacant units offer one or two months free as move-in credit; the list price stays the same but the effective rent drops 8 to 16%.
Where the listings actually cluster
The median is one point. The distribution carries the full shape. The histogram below sorts 12,485 live listings into seven $500-wide bands. The tallest bar marks the price band where the largest slice of today's American apartments rent.
Where the market actually sits
The biggest bucket is $1,400 to $2,000, holding 32.3% of 12,485 tracked units.
| Price band | Units | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Under $1,000 | 937 | 7.5% |
| $1,000 to $1,400 | 1,632 | 13.1% |
| $1,400 to $2,000 | 4,032 | 32.3% |
| $2,000 to $3,000 | 3,904 | 31.3% |
| $3,000 to $4,000 | 1,419 | 11.4% |
| $4,000 to $5,000 | 407 | 3.3% |
| $5,000 and up | 154 | 1.2% |
The income behind the rent number
HUD draws the cost-burdened line at 30% of gross household income going to rent. Financial-planning guidance pulls that line tighter to 25%. Today's national medians clear both thresholds only at the studio; every other bedroom size requires an income above the US median household.
| Bedroom | Median rent | Annual rent | Income at 30% | Income at 25% |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Studio | $1,735 | $20,820 | $69,400 | $83,280 |
| 1BR | $1,843 | $22,116 | $73,720 | $88,464 |
| 2BR | $2,345 | $28,140 | $93,800 | $112,560 |
| 3BR | $2,018 | $24,216 | $80,720 | $96,864 |
US median household income sits at roughly $75,000 in 2026. A household at that level clears the studio row and the 1BR row in the cheapest third of the country. Two-bedroom and three-bedroom medians outrun that income at the 30% line. Close to half of American renters now spend more than 30% of income on rent. The national wage curve and the national rent curve crossed years ago, and the gap keeps widening.
The cheapest and most expensive US markets
At the cheap end, Garland, TX, Arlington, TX, Osceola, IA each run below $1,060 in average rent. At the expensive end, San Francisco, CA, Boston, MA, Brooklyn, NY each sit above $4,486. The gap between the two clusters runs more than 5.6x, which swamps every other variable on this page.
10 cheapest markets
Minimum 3 tracked properties per city.
- 1 Garland, TX $957
- 2 Arlington, TX $963
- 3 Osceola, IA $1,060
- 4 Corpus Christi, TX $1,163
- 5 Boone, IA $1,171
- 6 Tucson, AZ $1,231
- 7 Richmond, TX $1,438
- 8 Raleigh, NC $1,606
- 9 Irving, TX $1,660
- 10 Katy, TX $1,677
10 most expensive markets
Minimum 3 tracked properties per city.
- 1 San Francisco, CA $5,324
- 2 Boston, MA $4,588
- 3 Brooklyn, NY $4,486
- 4 Fremont, CA $3,623
- 5 Oklahoma City, OK $3,471
- 6 Oakland, CA $3,359
- 7 San Diego, CA $3,293
- 8 Irvine, CA $3,182
- 9 Miami, FL $3,179
- 10 Santa Ana, CA $3,160
Where rent outruns income
Low rent in a low-wage market still breaks budgets. High rent in a high-wage market often does not. The table below pairs the live-listing median with Census median household income for each covered metro and flags the cities where the typical household crosses the 30% cost-burdened line.
Rent-to-income reality check
Annual rent divided by Census median household income for the same city. The federal cost-burdened threshold is 30%. Shaded rows are over.
| City | Avg rent | Annual rent | Median income | Burden |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Miami, FL | $3,179 | $38,148 | $59,390 | 64.2% |
| Tampa, FL | $2,794 | $33,528 | $71,302 | 47.0% |
| Los Angeles, CA | $2,896 | $34,752 | $80,366 | 43.2% |
| Houston, TX | $2,196 | $26,352 | $62,894 | 41.9% |
| Dallas, TX | $2,123 | $25,476 | $67,760 | 37.6% |
| San Antonio, TX | $1,893 | $22,716 | $62,917 | 36.1% |
| Orlando, FL | $2,059 | $24,708 | $69,268 | 35.7% |
| Las Vegas, NV | $1,978 | $23,736 | $70,723 | 33.6% |
| Nashville, TN | $2,087 | $25,044 | $75,197 | 33.3% |
| Charlotte, NC | $2,153 | $25,836 | $78,438 | 32.9% |
| Atlanta, GA | $2,114 | $25,368 | $81,938 | 31.0% |
| Irvine, CA | $3,182 | $38,184 | $129,647 | 29.5% |
| Denver, CO | $2,247 | $26,964 | $91,681 | 29.4% |
| Seattle, WA | $2,594 | $31,128 | $121,984 | 25.5% |
| Austin, TX | $1,832 | $21,984 | $91,461 | 24.0% |
| Raleigh, NC | $1,606 | $19,272 | $82,424 | 23.4% |
| Cary, NC | $1,991 | $23,892 | $129,399 | 18.5% |
| Morrisville, NC | $1,709 | $20,508 | $125,404 | 16.4% |
| Arlington, TX | $963 | $11,556 | $73,519 | 15.7% |
| Garland, TX | $957 | $11,484 | $74,717 | 15.4% |
12-month movement, not a flat index line
US apartment rents move every month. The chart below plots the real month-to-month median from our live listings against a 3-month moving average, the same smoothing style ZORI and RentCafe publish. The smoothed line flattens quarters of actual movement into a near-horizontal curve, which is why index-style charts often read as if nothing is happening in the rental market.
Median rent over the last 12 months
Real monthly medians. No seasonal adjustment. No index smoothing.
Showing 2 months of available history.
How our median compares to Zillow and RentCafe
The chart below places three numbers side by side: Zillow's ZORI, RentCafe's Yardi-sourced national average, and the live-listing median on this page. They disagree because they measure different things. ZORI estimates typical rent through a statistical model. RentCafe smooths the industry average month to month. The median on this page reports the middle of the current listing distribution, no smoothing applied.
Side by side: our live-listing data vs. the big indexes
Every row shows what our 12,485 live units currently say, and what Zillow's ZORI model or RentCafe's Yardi feed said the last time we checked their public pages (March 2026).
| Metric | average-rent.com | Zillow ZORI | RentCafe | Gap vs ZORI | Gap vs RentCafe |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| US median asking rent (all beds) | $1,931 | $2,054 | $1,845 | -6.0% | +4.6% |
| Our figure is the 50th percentile of live listings. ZORI is a statistical estimate. RentCafe is a property-management database average. | |||||
| US median, 1-bedroom | $1,843 | not published | $1,721 | — | +7.1% |
| Zillow does not publish a national 1BR breakout on its public consumer page. RentCafe does. | |||||
| US median, 2-bedroom | $2,345 | not published | $2,072 | — | +13.2% |
| Same as above: Zillow keeps bedroom splits inside the report; RentCafe publishes a number. | |||||
What the ZORI gap tells you
If our figure sits above ZORI, the market of currently-listed units is richer than Zillow's modeled "typical rent" for the middle of the market. If it sits below, we are capturing more of the longer-tail, cheaper supply. Neither is wrong. They measure different things.
What the RentCafe gap tells you
RentCafe's number is weighted toward the Yardi-managed professional-apartment inventory. It tends to run below our median in markets where Class A purpose-built inventory is a smaller share of what is available to rent today.
Competitor figures last verified March 2026 against Zillow's public research page and RentCafe's national average apartment rent chart. Zillow, ZORI, RentCafe, and Yardi are trademarks of their respective owners.
How we compute this
How we calculate this, and why it differs from Zillow and RentCafe
Every number on this page comes from a live asking price we collected from an apartment community's own leasing website, the same page a prospective tenant would see. We do not apply a statistical model. We do not survey landlords. We publish what is on the market right now, refreshed every morning.
Today that means 12,485 individual units across 1,412 properties in 132 cities, including studios to 4+ bedrooms.
Zillow's ZORI is a model, not a listing
The Zillow Observed Rent Index estimates the typical rent for the middle of the market in a given region, using a statistical model that weights repeat rentals across Zillow's listing database. It is useful for long-horizon macro comparisons. It is not a count of actual listed units. A ZORI figure reflects Zillow's estimate of the market, not the raw asking prices available to rent today.
RentCafe's public chart smooths the movement away
RentCafe publishes a national average apartment rent drawn from Yardi's property-management database. The published chart reads as a near-flat line from mid 2023 through early 2026, which is an artifact of how averages and index smoothing erase the monthly signal. Raw month-to-month medians across live listings do not sit flat for two and a half years. If you ran a landlord portfolio, you would never price at the index.
What you get here instead
- The raw distribution: 10th, 25th, 50th, 75th, and 90th percentile asking rents. Indices collapse this to one number.
- Bedroom-by-bedroom quartiles so you can see what a studio actually rents for versus a 2 bedroom.
- Live city rankings, not metro-level aggregates that hide intra-market variance.
- Unsmoothed month-to-month medians, including the outlier months indices normally average out.
- A refresh timestamp on every chart, so you always know how stale what you are reading is.
Zillow, ZORI, and RentCafe are trademarks of their respective owners. This comparison is offered as methodology context. Ratings refer to public methodology documentation as of April 2026.
Explore the data
The national numbers on this page have direct counterparts at the city, neighborhood, and state level across the rest of this site.
- What is the median rent in the US?: the same dataset, angled at the distributional question.
- Interactive national map: filter by bedrooms, price, or city and see live listings.
- Every city we cover: city-level medians, neighborhood-level breakdowns, trend charts.
- How our data is collected: the full pipeline from leasing page to this chart.