Original research

Highest-Rent Cities in America

PlainCities ranks large US cities by median gross rent from U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey data.

Compiled by PlainCities on 2026-06-03

Research question

Among large US cities (population 50,000 or more), which carry the highest median gross rent, and how wide is the gap between the most and least expensive rental markets once you exclude the smallest places where Census estimates are noisiest?

Methodology

This ranking covers every U.S. place with a population of at least 50,000 and a reported median gross rent, ordered highest to lowest and limited to the top ten. Every figure on this page is read live from PlainCities' current dataset, and none is hardcoded. The ranking changes after PlainCities ingests and validates a refreshed Census release.

Median gross rent comes from the American Community Survey 5-year estimates, Table B25064. Gross rent combines the contract rent a tenant pays with the estimated monthly cost of utilities and fuels, which makes it a fuller measure of housing cost than contract rent alone. Because it is a 5-year estimate, the figure represents a rolling average rather than a single month; it is more stable than a spot-market quote but lags rapid swings in a hot rental market by a year or two.

We apply a 50,000-resident population floor for this ranking. Small places can post extreme rent figures that rest on a handful of surveyed units, and the Census margin of error widens sharply at low sample sizes. Restricting the field to mid-size and large cities keeps the ranking on solid statistical ground and makes the comparison between markets meaningful. A separate aggregate query, run against the same filtered population, returns the count of qualifying cities and the average rent across all of them so the top ten can be read against the wider field.

To give the headline ranking context, a companion query returns the ten lowest-rent large cities from the same column and the same population floor. Pairing the most expensive markets with the most affordable ones shows the full spread of large-city rents in a single view, and both cuts draw from one source and one definition, so the comparison is apples to apples. The two charts below visualize these cuts; the table lists the headline ranking row by row, each city linking to its full profile.

Every number traces back to a single Census source record and is auditable against the original release. See the methodology page for the full source vintage and refresh history.

Highest median gross rent, large US cities

Cities with 50,000+ residents, ranked from the live portal dataset

median monthly gross rent

What this shows Salinas has the highest median gross rent among the qualifying cities in this live ranking.

Source U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates

The ranked top 10

Each row is rendered from the live result set returned by the query above. Refresh after an ETL run to see the latest values.

# City State Median gross rent Median income Population
1 Salinas CA $4,214 $89,150 161,993
2 Santa Cruz CA $4,214 $111,427 60,953
3 Cupertino CA $4,214 $231,139 58,886
4 Watsonville CA $4,214 $74,785 51,968
5 San Francisco CA $3,604 $141,446 836,321
6 Richmond CA $3,604 $90,038 115,396
7 San Mateo CA $3,604 $152,669 103,555
8 Daly City CA $3,604 $119,570 102,560
9 Redwood City CA $3,604 $150,840 82,423
10 Alameda CA $3,604 $132,015 76,876

Source: U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey, Table B25064 (Median Gross Rent). Figures are read from PlainCities' current dataset after the source release has been ingested and validated. U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey, Table B25064 (Median Gross Rent). Figures are read from PlainCities' current dataset after the source release has been ingested and validated.

Findings

The most expensive large-city rental market

The highest median gross rent among large US cities belongs to Salinas, CA, at $4,214 per month. That figure includes the estimated cost of utilities, not just contract rent, so it reflects the full monthly housing bill a typical renter faces. The cities clustered near the top of this ranking are overwhelmingly coastal and tech-driven, where land constraints and high local incomes push rents well above the national picture.

How wide the spread runs

Within the top ten alone, the most expensive market charges about 1.2× the rent of the tenth-ranked city, and the gap against the most affordable large cities is far wider still. Across all 869 large cities in the dataset, median gross rent averages $1,936, with the most affordable large markets renting for roughly $937. The same dollar covers a very different home depending on the city, which is why rent is best read alongside local income rather than on its own.

Reading rent against income

A high rent in a high-income city can be more manageable than a moderate rent in a low-wage one. Each city in the table links to its full profile, where median gross rent sits next to median household income, home value and poverty rate, the context you need to judge whether a market is genuinely expensive for the people who live there. The affordability finder tool lets you flip the question around and filter cities to a rent ceiling that fits your budget.

Why gross rent, not contract rent

It is worth being precise about what this figure measures. Contract rent is the amount written into the lease; gross rent adds the Census Bureau's estimate of what the tenant pays for electricity, gas, water, and other fuels on top of that. The gross measure is the better yardstick for comparing one city to another, because the share of utilities bundled into rent varies widely, a building where heat is included looks cheaper on contract rent than an identical building where the tenant pays the utility company directly, even when the true cost of living there is the same. Using gross rent removes that distortion and puts every city on the same footing.

Where the expensive markets cluster

The geography of high rent is not random. The cities at the top of this ranking concentrate on the coasts and around major technology and finance employers, where land is scarce, construction is constrained, and local wages are high enough to sustain the prices. That clustering is exactly why a national average can mislead: a renter weighing a move is rarely choosing between a typical city and an expensive one, but between two specific markets whose rents may differ by more than the national spread suggests. Comparing the two cities directly, side by side, is far more useful than measuring either against the country as a whole.

What this analysis cannot tell us

Median gross rent reflects contract rent plus the estimated average monthly cost of utilities and fuels, as published by the U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey 5-year estimates (Table B25064). It is a median across all renter-occupied units in a place, so it blends studios and four-bedroom houses, rent-controlled and market-rate units, and new and long-tenured leases. A high median does not mean every rental is expensive, nor does a low median guarantee availability. The 5-year aggregation smooths volatility but lags fast-moving markets by up to two years. A 50,000-resident population floor excludes small places where rent estimates carry the widest margins of error. Rent is not adjusted for unit size, quality, or local income; comparing rent to the median household income on each city profile gives a better sense of affordability than rent alone.

Lowest median gross rent, large US cities

The other end of the same 50,000+ resident comparison

median monthly gross rent

What this shows This companion view applies the same Census field and population floor, then shows the lowest-rent cities rather than the highest-rent cities.

Source U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates

Related data

Sources

Every figure on PlainCities is rendered directly from Census ACS source data, no number is typed in by an editor. This page draws directly on Census ACS source data, no figure is typed in by an editor. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error.