A nationwide study by a real estate network based in New Jersey has produced a top ten listing of cities where renters get the most space for their money. But none of those top ten cities are in Utah (Image courtesy of Facebook).
COLONIA, NJ – A new study has revealed a top ten list of U.S. cities where a dollars’ worth of rent buys the most space in which to live.
No surprise, however, there’s no place in Utah on that list. In fact, there isn’t a single community with relatively cheap rental opportunities on that top ten list west of the Mississippi River.
The study was conducted by the New Jersey Real Estate Network by analyzing data on monthly prices and square footage of rental listings in metropolitan areas with at least 1,000 listings to establish the cities where renters get the most room for their money.
Prices on that top ten list range from $.65 per square foot to nearly $.90 per square foot. That means, in the most affordable town in the U.S., a typical 1,000-square-foot apartment goes for the modest sum of $650 a month in rent.
Granted, that may sound like paradise to a Utah renter searching in vain for a place to live. But, as the old joke goes, there’s a terrible curse that comes with that comparatively affordable rent. Namely, living in Jamestown, PA.
The top ten list includes three cities in Pennsylvania (Jamestown, Pottsville and Altoona); three in Illinois (Decatur, Carbondale and Peoria); two in Indiana (Muncie and Terre Haute); one in Maryland (Cumberland) and one in New York (Ogdensburg). All of them feature rental prices per square foot south of a dollar but also high unemployment rates and depressed housing markets to match.
“There is a clear trend in this data suggesting that renters in the eastern portion of the county get more room for their money,“ according to a spokesman for the New Jersey Real Estate Network.
“The most expensive cities per square foot are almost solely on the West Coast, in the Mountain States and in Hawaii.”
Here in Utah, it’s difficult to imagine getting a 1,000-square-foot rental for $900 a month, which is the average price in Terre Haute, the most expensive town in the study’s top ten list.
In Salt Lake City, for example, the average apartment in July of 2023 went for $1,662 per month, according to RentCafé, an online service that tracks rental market trends.
But that average apartment was only 823 square feet, making that rent slightly more than $2 per square foot. That’s more than double what some renters east of the Mississippi pay for only 80 percent of the living space.
Moreover, in Salt Lake’s most popular neighborhoods – the downtown area and Sugar House – the average rental price is $1,752 and $1,860 respectively. That translates to $2.12 per square foot in the downtown area and $2.26 per square foot in the Sugar House area.
That presumes, of course, that you can even locate a rental in either of those areas. There were only 20 rental listings in the entire downtown Salt Lake City area in July of 2023.
Here in Logan and Cache Valley, the situation is a little better for prospective renters, but not much.
The rent for the average apartment in Logan in July of 2023 was $1,776 per month for an apartment that measures 1,120 square feet. That translates to $1.58 per square foot.
The average rental in North Logan goes for $1,517 per month, or about $1.35 per square foot.
The number of apartments in Logan “… varies greatly depending on unit type, with cheap and luxury alternatives,” according to the folks at RentCafé.
“Studio apartments are the smallest and most affordable,” they add. “One-bedroom apartments are closer to the average (size and cost), while two- and three-bedroom apartment offer a more generous square footage.”
Of a total of more than 17,000 households in the Logan area, RentCafé says that about 60 percent are now renter occupied.
The New Jersey Real Estate Network is an online guide to real estate information originally founded by Robert Dekanski.
For more information about the aforementioned study, go to https://www.newjerseyrealestatenetwork.com.