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Average Rent by State, County & City — FY2027 Fair Market Rents
AverageRentCost tracks what rent actually looks like across the United States using the two most reliable public benchmarks available: HUD's Fair Market Rents (FMRs) for fiscal year 2027, published for 3,145 counties and county-equivalents, and the U.S. Census Bureau's American Community Survey median gross rent for every state. FMRs are the figures the federal government itself uses to run the Housing Choice Voucher program, so they are the closest thing the country has to an official rent scale — bedroom by bedroom, county by county. Every figure on this site comes from those published tables, with the source and fiscal year shown on the page.
The most expensive counties for renters
The top of the national table is dominated by coastal California and a handful of resort and island markets. The single highest 2-bedroom FMR in the FY2027 schedule belongs to Santa Cruz, California, at $4,254 a month — more than four times the lowest figure in the country. These are gross rents: the amounts include utilities, because that is how HUD defines the benchmark for voucher payment standards.
| County | State | HUD rent area | Efficiency | 1 BR | 2 BR | 3 BR | 4 BR |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Santa Cruz | California | Santa Cruz-Watsonville, CA MSA | $3,230 | $3,390 | $4,254 | $5,531 | $5,748 |
| Marin | California | San Francisco, CA HUD Metro FMR Area | $2,574 | $3,003 | $3,697 | $4,832 | $5,439 |
| San Francisco | California | San Francisco, CA HUD Metro FMR Area | $2,574 | $3,003 | $3,697 | $4,832 | $5,439 |
| San Mateo | California | San Francisco, CA HUD Metro FMR Area | $2,574 | $3,003 | $3,697 | $4,832 | $5,439 |
| Nantucket | Massachusetts | Nantucket County, MA | $2,495 | $2,739 | $3,583 | $4,269 | $5,392 |
| Napa | California | Napa, CA MSA | $2,350 | $2,580 | $3,375 | $4,201 | $5,094 |
| Santa Clara | California | San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA HUD Metro FMR Area | $2,458 | $2,778 | $3,272 | $4,396 | $4,688 |
| Santa Barbara | California | Santa Maria-Santa Barbara, CA MSA | $2,479 | $2,711 | $3,106 | $3,990 | $4,557 |
| Orange | California | Santa Ana-Anaheim-Irvine, CA HUD Metro FMR Area | $2,580 | $2,610 | $3,057 | $4,153 | $4,964 |
| Essex | Massachusetts | Boston-Cambridge-Quincy, MA-NH HUD Metro FMR Area | $2,440 | $2,518 | $3,008 | $3,584 | $3,953 |
The least expensive counties
At the other end, the lowest 2-bedroom FMR in the FY2027 file is $885 a month, a figure shared by 13 county areas — mostly rural counties where HUD's formula rests on state nonmetropolitan rent levels. The ten lowest listings below are typical of that group: small counties, largely in the Southeast and Midwest, where a 2-bedroom gross rent benchmark still sits under $950.
| County | State | HUD rent area | Efficiency | 1 BR | 2 BR | 3 BR | 4 BR |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Abbeville | South Carolina | Abbeville County, SC | $643 | $741 | $885 | $1,195 | $1,200 |
| Allendale | South Carolina | Allendale County, SC | $643 | $741 | $885 | $1,095 | $1,194 |
| Cherokee | South Carolina | Cherokee County, SC | $780 | $813 | $885 | $1,106 | $1,371 |
| Chesterfield | South Carolina | Chesterfield County, SC | $643 | $677 | $885 | $1,153 | $1,217 |
| Clarendon | South Carolina | Clarendon County, SC | $643 | $677 | $885 | $1,105 | $1,314 |
| Dillon | South Carolina | Dillon County, SC | $780 | $813 | $885 | $1,225 | $1,479 |
| Greenwood | South Carolina | Greenwood County, SC | $643 | $747 | $885 | $1,106 | $1,285 |
| Hampton | South Carolina | Hampton County, SC | $643 | $677 | $885 | $1,162 | $1,270 |
| Lee | South Carolina | Lee County, SC | $643 | $677 | $885 | $1,054 | $1,163 |
| McCormick | South Carolina | McCormick County, SC | $648 | $677 | $885 | $1,189 | $1,194 |
How Fair Market Rents work
HUD sets a Fair Market Rent for every rent area in the country — each metropolitan area and each nonmetropolitan county — for five unit sizes, from efficiencies to four-bedroom homes. The 2-bedroom figure is the standard benchmark quoted most often. FMRs are set at roughly the 40th percentile of gross rents paid by recent movers: in plain terms, about 40 percent of comparable homes rent for less than the FMR and 60 percent rent for more. HUD builds them from Census Bureau American Community Survey data, updated with rent inflation measures, and publishes a new schedule every fiscal year.
The FMR's main job is practical. Local housing agencies use it to set the payment standard for Housing Choice Vouchers (Section 8): the maximum subsidy is built from the FMR for the unit size, and agencies may set their standard between 90 and 110 percent of the published figure. Landlords, lenders, and researchers also use FMRs as a neutral yardstick for comparing rent levels between places — which is exactly how this site uses them. In a few large metro areas HUD also publishes Small Area FMRs by ZIP code for voucher administration; the county-level figures here are the standard published schedule.
Average rent by state
State pages carry the full county-by-county FY2027 table for that state plus the Census ACS median gross rent — what surveyed renters in the state actually reported paying. The highest state median in ACS 2024 is California at $2,104 a month; the lowest is West Virginia at $883. Pick a state to see its counties:
Most-read county rent pages
Our county pages go deeper on the largest rental markets: the full bedroom-by-bedroom FMR table, the income the 30% rule implies for each unit size, and how the county compares with its state. Start with the biggest markets:
Not sure what a rent means for your budget? The rent affordability calculator applies the 30% rule to your income and checks it against the FY2027 FMRs for the counties we cover in depth.
Sources: U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Fair Market Rents FY2027 (county-level data file, effective October 1, 2026), huduser.gov; U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 2024 1-year estimates, table B25031 (median gross rent), census.gov. Last verified: October 2026.