15 States Where the Cost of a 1-Bedroom Has Gone Down in The Past Year

A well-known personal finance rule of thumb is that your housing costs should not exceed more than 30% of your gross monthly income. Despite this guideline, PBS NewsHour reported that half of all American renters pay more than 30% of their income on rent and utilities. To save money on rent, there’s some good news. The price of a one-bedroom apartment has declined across 15 cities in the United States.

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To determine which states have one-bedroom apartments that are getting cheaper, GOBankingRates used ApartmentList’s February 2024 data to find the one-bedroom rent for February 2023 and February 2024 in each U.S. state. From there, we can determine the year-over-year monetary and percentage changes in one-bedroom rent and rank the states with negative figures only.

In descending order, here are 15 states where a one-bedroom is becoming more affordable to rent.

• February 2023 1-bedroom rent: $1,441
• February 2024 1-bedroom rent: $1,440
• YoY change ($) in 1-bedroom rent: -$1
• YoY change (%) in 1-bedroom rent: -0.07%

• February 2023 1-bedroom rent: $1,124
• February 2024 1-bedroom rent: $1,121
• YoY change ($) in 1-bedroom rent: -$3
• YoY change (%) in 1-bedroom rent: -0.27%

• February 2023 1-bedroom rent: $1,168
• February 2024 1-bedroom rent: $1,157
• YoY change ($) in 1-bedroom rent: -$11
• YoY change (%) in 1-bedroom rent: -0.94%

• February 2023 1-bedroom rent: $1,857
• February 2024 1-bedroom rent: $1,833
• YoY change ($) in 1-bedroom rent: -$24
• YoY change (%) in 1-bedroom rent: -1.29%

• February 2023 1-bedroom rent: $716
• February 2024 1-bedroom rent: $702
• YoY change ($) in 1-bedroom rent: -$14
• YoY change (%) in 1-bedroom rent: -1.96%

• February 2023 1-bedroom rent: $1,035
• February 2024 1-bedroom rent: $1,014
• YoY change ($) in 1-bedroom rent: -$21
• YoY change (%) in 1-bedroom rent: -2.03%

• February 2023 1-bedroom rent: $1,136
• February 2024 1-bedroom rent: $1,111
• YoY change ($) in 1-bedroom rent: -$25
• YoY change (%) in 1-bedroom rent: -2.20%

• February 2023 1-bedroom rent: $1,151
• February 2024 1-bedroom rent: $1,124
• YoY change ($) in 1-bedroom rent: -$27
• YoY change (%) in 1-bedroom rent: -2.35%

• February 2023 1-bedroom rent: $1,168
• February 2024 1-bedroom rent: $1,138
• YoY change ($) in 1-bedroom rent: -$30
• YoY change (%) in 1-bedroom rent: -2.57%

• February 2023 1-bedroom rent: $837
• February 2024 1-bedroom rent: $814
• YoY change ($) in 1-bedroom rent: -$23
• YoY change (%) in 1-bedroom rent: -2.75%

• February 2023 1-bedroom rent: $1,344
• February 2024 1-bedroom rent: $1,307
• YoY change ($) in 1-bedroom rent: -$37
• YoY change (%) in 1-bedroom rent: -2.75%

• February 2023 1-bedroom rent: $817
• February 2024 1-bedroom rent: $794
• YoY change ($) in 1-bedroom rent: -$23
• YoY change (%) in 1-bedroom rent: -2.82%

• February 2023 1-bedroom rent: $1,267
• February 2024 1-bedroom rent: $1,225
• YoY change ($) in 1-bedroom rent: -$42
• YoY change (%) in 1-bedroom rent: -3.31%

• February 2023 1-bedroom rent: $1,191
• February 2024 1-bedroom rent: $1,150
• YoY change ($) in 1-bedroom rent: -$41
• YoY change (%) in 1-bedroom rent: -3.44%

• February 2023 1-bedroom rent: $1,287
• February 2024 1-bedroom rent: $1,238
• YoY change ($) in 1-bedroom rent: -$49
• YoY change (%) in 1-bedroom rent: -3.81%

Methodology: For this piece, GOBankingRates used ApartmentList’s February 2024 data to find each state’s (1) February 2023 1-bedroom rent and (2) February 2024 1-bedroom rent. With these two figures, GOBankingRates found each state’s (3) year-over-year monetary change in 1-bedroom rent and (4) year-over-year percent change in 1-bedroom rent. Only those states with a negative figure for (3) and (4) were included in the final rankings. All data was collected and is up to date as of March 5, 2024.

Editor's note: This article was produced via automated technology and then fine-tuned and verified for accuracy by a member of GOBankingRates' editorial team.