- Washington D.C., Cincinnati and Kansas City are the three most popular cities for renters in early 2025, an online engagement analysis finds.
- Renters are generally more attracted to Southern and Midwestern cities, which often offer more affordable rentals.
- Asking rents had their biggest drop in more than a year in April, but more places require high salaries to afford.
Southern and Midwestern cities are dominating the most popular cities for renters in early 2025, according to rental-finding website RentCafe, which reviewed online engagement in the first three months of the year.
RentCafe ranked the 150 most-populous cities for renters through availability, page views, saved searches and favorited listings on its platform.
Southern cities took 15 of the top 30 most popular cities for renters, while Midwestern cities had seven of the top 10 cities.
Washington D.C. was the most popular city for renters in early 2025, followed by Cincinnati, Ohio, Kansas City, Mo, Atlanta, Ga. and Chicago, Ill. in the rest of the top five.
"This shows that the nation’s capital is a hotspot for apartment hunters, who appear to be moving quickly to secure rentals here," RentCafe said, pointing to how D.C. had an 18% uptick in favorited listings.
Some cities also saw big gains from last year.
For instance, Las Vegas, Nev. surged to 12th place, jumping 88 spots from a year ago, and Fort Lauderdale, Fla. moved to 28th place, jumping 71 ranks.
On the other hand, Aurora, Ill, was the least popular city for renters in early 2025, followed by Irvine, Calif., McKinney, Texas, Oklahoma City, Okla and Fort Worth, Texas in the rest of the bottom five.
Below is a searchable table ranking the 150 most-populous cities for renters in the first quarter of 2025.
Rent prices have come down slightly, but still require big salaries
Asking rents fell to to a median $1,625 in April, down $80 from a record high and the biggest drop in 14 months, according to real-estate brokerage Redfin.
The biggest drop was in Austin, Texas, with a 10% decline year over year. Austin has recently had a surge of housing construction.
“Asking rents are sluggish because there are more apartments for rent than people who want to rent them," said Redfin senior economist Sheharyar Bokhari in a statement.
Still, a separate report by listings website Zillow found the number of markets where renters need to earn $100,000 a year has doubled since 2020.
"Housing costs have surged since pre-pandemic, with rents growing quite a bit faster than wages," said Orphe Divounguy, senior economist at Zillow, in a statement. "This often leaves little room for other expenses, making it particularly difficult for those hoping to save for a down payment on a future home.