Top 5 Cities Where Tiny Apartments Are Big — and How Much It Costs to Live There
Written by
Dawn Allcot
Edited by
Angela Corry
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As typical rent prices across the U.S. reach more than $2,000, many Americans struggle to find affordable rental housing, according to recent research from Zillow.com. As new graduates seek apartments, it puts more upward pressure on rent prices.
This spring, multifamily home rental prices have edged up by 0.7%, up to $1,849 for a typical apartment, Zillow.com wrote in its March Rent Report.
The solution for many renters? Tiny apartments, or micro-housing.
Developers are converting space in dying or defunct malls across the country into micro-apartments, like the ones at The Arcade, a historic mall building in Providence, Rhode Island. Similarly, the Lafayette Square Mall in Indianapolis is planning to open 1,200 apartments in a former Sears building in 2025, CNBC.com reported.
But the biggest demand for tiny apartments is on the West Coast, according to a new study from StorageCafe.com.
San Francisco ranks the highest or available micro-units and also shows the biggest cost savings for renters who can cram themselves and their belongings in a space that maxes out at 415 feet. According to StorageCafe.com’s research, some tiny apartments in San Francisco measure as small as 124 square feet. If you’re reading this from the comfort of a spacious, 3-bedroom suburban home, 124 square feet is just slightly larger than a 10′ x 12′ bedroom you might have in your house.
Most micro-units have a maximum size of roughly 415 to 440 feet to be considered “micro” by zoning laws. But you’ll find outliers. For instance, the smallest of the tiny apartments are in Honolulu, Hawaii, where a unit must be under 348 square feet to be considered “micro.”
Let’s take a look at 5 cities where micro-units make up more than 10% of the city’s available rentals.
| City | Avg. size of tiny apt. | % of micro-units | Avg. Rent for Micro-unit | Savings compared to traditional apartment |
| San Francisco | 415 | 14.70% | $1,888 | $1,628 |
| Seattle | 405 | 12% | $1,289 | $1,099 |
| Honolulu | 348 | 11.60% | $1,700 | $562 |
| Portland (OR) | 408 | 10.70% | $1,144 | $635 |
| Minneapolis | 433 | 10.40% | $1,078 | $661 |
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