Rising interest rates and a competitive housing market made renting all the more popular last year, and the trend is expected to continue into 2024. To get a sense of the landscape, apartment search site RentCafe compiled data across the 150 largest cities to discover which locations were the best cities for renters in 2024.
Renters accounted for about 36% of the nation’s 122.8 million households in 2019, according to the most recent Census Bureau data. The median asking rent in the U.S. was $1,967 in November 2023, according to a report from Redfin. That represented a decline of 2.1% from the previous year and was the most recently-available data.
Top 10 cities for renters in 2024 include Atlanta and Kansas City
- In 2024, Atlanta, GA is the top city for renters to watch after attracting the highest rental activity on RentCafe.com in the last 12 months.
- Kansas City, MO, ranks second, closely followed by Cincinnati, OH. Both cities demonstrated increased rental activity in 2023.
- The Midwest is the #1 region for renters to keep track of in 2024, with 12 cities in the top 30 and surging engagement rates in the last year.
Top ten cities to watch
The top 10 cities (out of 30) for rental activity to watch in 2024 based on increased rental activity in the last 12 months, are:
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- Atlanta, GA
- Kansas City, MO
- Cincinnati, OH
- Arlington VA
- Orlando, FL
- Minneapolis, MN
- Denver, CO
- Portland, OR
- Albuquerque, NM
- Overland Park, KS
Top region for rentals
Although sometimes referred to as flyover states, the Midwest claimed 12 spots, which is more than the Northeast (five cities) and West (four cities) combined. However, the South came in second, with the number one spot going to Atlanta.
The Midwest’s popularity is undeniable, as cities in the region ranked highly across multiple rental activity reports in 2023 also, with Midwestern cities among the top five in all eight reports released this year. Kansas City, MO (#2); Cincinnati (#3); Minneapolis (#5); and Overland Park, KS (#9); all ranked among the top 10 cities on RentCafe’s list.
Best rental markets in 2023: Miami, North Jersey, Milwaukee
Looking back to 2023, Miami was the hottest rental market in the U.S., according to RentCafe’s 2023 Year-End Report, followed closely by North Jersey, NJ, Milwaukee, WI, Grand Rapids, MI and suburban Chicago, IL. And again, the Midwest was the most competitive region for renting in 2023.
And, as the Kiplinger Letter predicted and Realtor.com backed up, expected growth in the rental market remained slow through the end of 2023 amid a slow housing market and cooling economy.
But no matter where you rent or where you’re planning to rent in the future, you probably won’t have a hard time finding an apartment as the number of new multifamily apartment units under construction hit one million for the first time ever in 2023, and completions are expected to peak in 2024, according to Apartment List. With so many units in the construction pipeline, 2024 should be the strongest year for new rentals since the 1980s.
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