The median asking rent for one-bedroom apartments decreased by $15, or 1.1%, month over month in January, according to Dwellsy’s data analysis for the month.
“One-bedroom apartments are actually less expensive right now than they were in January 2021,” said Dwellsy CEO and co-founder Jonas Bordo. “During that two-year span, median asking rents stayed within a fairly narrow $100 range.”
However, Bordo warned that these stable rents don’t mean they are inexpensive, it just means the cost hasn’t changed significantly.
“In certain markets, apartment dwellers are used to paying thousands of dollars per month for a one-bedroom place,” said Bordo. “And there are some cities where apartment rent has surged recently.”
Having data on which cities are most expensive for renters is important for those who may be relocating or who want to know how their locations fit into the broader rental market, according to Bordo. The home rental listing platform mines its more than 13 million residential rental listings to take a deep dive into the trends in over 250 U.S. markets.
For January, Dwellsy examined the most expensive cities for one-bedroom apartments. While one-bedrooms are similar to two-bedrooms in terms of inventory, the one-bedroom apartments are more price accessible for renters.
For large cities, New York topped the list with a median one-bedroom asking rent of $3,201, an 11.1% year-over-year increase from January 2022, followed by Boston, which increased 0.2% from last January to $2,531.
“On the other end of the spectrum, cities like San Diego, Miami, Los Angeles, and more saw decreases in their year-over-year rent,” said Bordo. “When you’re paying in the neighborhood of $2,000 for a one-bedroom, every dollar saved counts.”
Rounding out the top five were San Francisco, $2,500, a 2% year-over-year increase; San Jose, California, $2,400, a 4.7% increase; and Washington, D.C., $2,053, a -0.6% decrease.
Three additional California markets made the top 10: Los Angeles’ median one-bedroom asking rent in January was $2,045, down year over year -0.7%; San Diego was down -14.1% to $1,995; and Riverside-San Bernardino declined -1.3% to $1,850. Rounding out the top 10 were Seattle at $1,745, a 1% year-over-year increase, and Miami at $1,738, an -11.2% drop.
In addition, when it comes to smaller cities with the most expensive median one-bedroom rents, six California cities made the list, with Santa Barbara at the top. The median one-bedroom asking rent in January was $2,173, rising 7.3% year over year.
Ithaca, New York, came in at No. 2, with a $2,173 median one-bedroom asking rent in January, a 7.8% increase, followed by both Salinas, California, and Bridgeport-Stamford, Connecticut, at $1,875 and Oxnard-Thousand Oaks, California, at $1,850.
Rounding out the top 10 were Poughkeepsie-Newburgh, New York, and San Luis Obispo, California, at $1,800; Vallejo-Fairfield, California, at $1,796; Burlington, Vermont, at $1,769; and Santa Rosa, California, at $1,724.
Bordo added that Burlington stood out in the top 10 most expensive small cities, after seeing a 22% jump from January 2022.
“Looking ahead to the coming months, there’s every reason to believe that apartment rent will remain relatively stable in most markets,” added Bordo. “We’re expecting a large slate of new construction in 2023, so the supply-and-demand balance will swing even more in renters’ favor.”
