Average Rent by County, City & ZIP

Median gross rent is the midpoint of what renters actually report paying each month, including estimated utility costs, in Census Bureau surveys — half of renters in an area pay more, half pay less. Unlike Fair Market Rent, which HUD calibrates specifically for tenants receiving a housing voucher, median gross rent describes the whole local rental market as reported by tenants themselves, making it a better fit for pricing a market-rate unit or benchmarking against what similar properties nearby are charging.

This hub uses the Census Bureau's American Community Survey (ACS) 5-Year estimates, which pool 60 months of survey responses to get statistically reliable figures down to the county, city, and ZIP Code Tabulation Area (ZCTA) level — smaller geographies need that longer window because the Census Bureau doesn't survey every household every year. The Census Bureau releases a new ACS 5-Year vintage each December, and this hub, along with every county/city/ZIP page linked from it, refreshes on that same annual cadence.

Because ACS 5-Year estimates are survey-based, smaller geographies carry wider margins of error — a rural county's median rent might have a confidence interval of ±$50/month, while a large metro county's is often tighter. Our county and ZIP pages show the margin of error alongside the estimate so you can gauge how much weight to put on a small dollar difference between two similarly sized areas. Median gross rent is also published by bedroom count — studio through 5-or-more bedrooms — on those same pages, since a county's overall median can mask big swings between a studio apartment and a 4-bedroom single-family rental.

For 2024, national median gross rent across the states covered on this hub is $1,312/month, up from $1,258 the prior year. That national figure smooths over enormous local variation — the county table below shows both ends of that range, from rural counties under $700/month to coastal and metro counties well above $2,000.

For property managers, median gross rent is the fastest sanity check before you set an asking price: if a unit is priced 20-30% above the county median with no obvious reason (renovation, amenities, location premium), it's likely to sit longer and draw fewer qualified leads. It's also useful context alongside HUD's Fair Market Rent when deciding whether to accept Section 8 vouchers — comparing the two shows how close a voucher's payment standard lands to what the broader market is actually paying. It's also a useful input when you're fielding a renewal negotiation: a tenant pushing back on an increase is easier to talk through when you can point to where the new rent sits relative to the county median, rather than relying on gut feel about what the market will bear.

This hub focuses on rental costs, but the same ACS release also reports median home value and the renter-occupied share of housing units for the same geographies — see our companion median home value hub for the ownership-side figure. Comparing the renter-occupied share alongside median rent gives a quick read on whether an area is landlord-friendly (a large, established rental market) or dominated by owner-occupied housing, where rentals are scarcer and can command a premium.

For the HUD-published benchmarks tied to Section 8 vouchers, see Fair Market Rent by ZIP Code and Income Limits by County— both use different methodologies than ACS median gross rent, so a property can be priced above the local median and still fall within FMR-eligible voucher payment standards.