The Best And Worst Cities For Rental Housing Are

Rental housing residents of Overland Park, Kansas, may want to borrow a line from the state’s most famous big screen character and chant “There’s no place like home” – their city was named the best for renters in a new data study by WalletHub.

In the study, WalletHub studied 182 cities and number-crunched 21 key measures for rental housing attractiveness – including the difference between rental rates and mortgage payments, the cost of living, job availability, driver friendliness, and quality of life concerns.

Overland Park ranked at the peak of the list, followed in the top 10 rankings by Scottsdale, Arizona; Bismarck, North Dakota; Sioux Falls, South Dakota; Chandler, Arizona; Fargo, North Dakota; Plano, Texas; Lincoln, Nebraska; Irvine, California; and Nashua, New Hampshire.

At the other end of the spectrum, Detroit was declared the worst city for renters. The other cities that occupied the lower 10 rankings on the list were Memphis; Jackson, Mississippi; Akron, Ohio; Chattanooga, Tennessee; New Orleans; Huntington, West Virginia; Shreveport, Louisiana; and Hialeah, Florida.

WalletHub also noted that Cheyenne, Wyoming, has the highest rental affordability, with the lowest median annual gross rent divided by median annual household income at 15.39%, which is 2.4 times lower than in Hialeah, the city with the lowest at 36.49%. Little Rock, Arkansas, has the highest rental vacancy rate, 11.70%, which is 10.6 times higher than Lewiston, Maine, the city with the lowest at 1.10%.

Newark, New Jersey, has the highest share of renter-occupied housing units at 76.80%, which is 3.9 times higher than in Port St. Lucie, Florida, the city with the lowest at 19.60%. Brownsville, Texas, has the lowest cost-of-living index at 75, which is 2.5 times lower than Honolulu and Pearl City, Hawaii, the cities with the highest at 184. And Irvine has the fewest violent crimes (per 1,000 residents), 0.51, which is 46.1 times fewer than Memphis, the city with the most at 23.52.