These Cities are Popular With Renters Right Now

Article originally posted on Globe St. on February 2, 2024

Yet another entry has arrived in the ongoing effort to figure out where renters plan to move. This time it’s from RentCafe, which bases its results on its rental listing data for 150 U.S. cities. And the winner is —Minneapolis!

Each city is assigned a score that considers the availability of apartments, listing views, apartments saved as favorites, and personalized searches. Minneapolis won with a score of 100. It enjoyed a 159% increase in page views to put it in first place, a 39% hike in the number of people “favoriting” it, and a 139% boost in saved searches. It earned 45 points for availability – but, perhaps not surprisingly, availability dropped 26% year over year.

Minneapolis was followed by Queens, NY (94) which rose three places, Atlanta (92), Detroit (80), and Colorado Springs (79).

Overall, searchers were more inclined to favor the West, where 11 cities ranked in the top 30. Nine cities in the Midwest, seven in the South, and three in the Northeast rounded out the most sought-after destinations. Gilbert, AZ rose 54 places to come in second after Colorado Springs in the West and sixth nationwide. Other Western cities that performed well were San Jose, Stockton, CA (new to the top ranks), Peoria, AZ [THIS IS CORRECT], Fremont, CA, Tacoma, WA, Denver, Sacramento, and Chandler, AZ.

In the Midwest, besides Minneapolis, searches focused on Detroit, Cleveland, Overland Park, KS, Cincinnati, Wichita – which surged up 89 positions to 19th nationally, Aurora, IL, Chicago, Indianapolis, and Omaha. The South was led by Atlanta, followed by Orlando, Washington, DC, Tulsa, Richmond, Fort Lauderdale, Arlington, VA, Louisville, Dallas and Charlotte. In the Northeast, Queens was followed by Buffalo, Newark, Boston, Philadelphia, Manhattan, Yonkers, NY, the Bronx, Providence, RI, and Jersey City.

Cities that made it into the top 30 nationally for the first time included the California cities Stockton and Fremont, as well as Gilbert, Tacoma, Chandler, Wichita, Chicago, Arlington and Newark.