The Most and Least Expensive States To Rent a Two-Bedroom in January 2024

January 15, 2024

4 min Read

For Rent Real Estate Sign In Front of a Row of Apartment Condominiums Balconies and Garage Doors.

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Although job growth and housing demand remain high in many parts of the country, the rental market eased slightly in 2023. So far, 2024 looks to be trending in the same direction.

If predictions of downturns in commercial development sales and upswings in inventory come to fruition this year, some relief should be available — at least to those who have chosen to rent apartments instead of own.

This relief couldn’t come soon enough for many Americans struggling with paying rent. In some states, it takes considerably more — two to three times more in some — than the state’s minimum hourly wage to afford two-bedroom accommodation.

In its 2023 state study of hourly wages needed to afford a two-bedroom apartment, Statista noted, “there was no state in which a minimum wage worker could afford rent for the average two-bedroom apartment if they only worked 40 hours a week.”

A shortage of rental housing — caused by would-be homebuyers staying in the rental market to avoid high mortgage rates, enormous asking prices and a lack of inventory — may soon ease, but rents are still high, inconsistent throughout states and raised per a landlord’s judgment.

“When it comes to how much a landlord can raise rent, anything flies,” Robert Pellegrini, president of real estate and collections law firm PK Boston, told Realtor.com. “There are no rules, and it’s totally at their discretion.”

What does that mean for 2024? If inflation and interest rates decline, more Americans might be inclined to move into the homeownership market, taking some of the heat off rent prices. But it might take some time before any significant relief is realized. We’ll start to gauge if there’s any real change in the average rates for two-bedroom rentals when January data starts rolling in next month and as the year progresses.

In the meantime, here were the 10 most and least expensive states for two-bedroom rentals in 2023, including fair market rent and the hourly wage needed to afford it, according to NLIHC and Statista, respectively.