These Cities Have the Most Expensive Apartments Per Square Foot

If you're looking for an apartment in some of the nation's most desirable cities and suburbs, you already know to be aware of some sticker shock.

Maybe you're wavering between a studio and a one-bedroom, or one-bedroom or two, trying to save a little money.

But if you start looking at rental units in terms of apartment cost per square foot, you might find your savings aren't as big as you think.

We scoured every listing on Apartment Guide and found every apartment in every city in America, and separated them by the number of bedrooms. We then calculated the average size of all those apartments in each city and divided that figure by the average price of every unit to determine each city's average price per square foot.

Then, we ranked the 50 most expensive cities to rent an apartment based on average rental price per square foot for studio, one-bedroom and two-bedroom apartments.

• Most expensive studio apartments per square foot
• Most expensive 1-BR apartments per square foot
• Most expensive 2-BR apartments per square foot

Studio apartments

The dream of thousands of young people across the country is to pack up the car and move to the big city. Visions of Wall Street jobs, Broadway shows and first acting gigs entice youngsters to New York City and tech jobs and start-ups lure college grads to the Bay Area. And the images in their heads are of that first apartment, an inexpensive studio apartment — a bed, a couch, a kitchenette — somewhere to crash after work or a night out.

But in places like these, the dreamer might have a sudden start awake as they see just how expensive even a zero bedroom apartment is in those trendy places.

Of course, the cliché of the tiny studio apartment where one must sit on their bed to eat at their kitchen counter with one foot in the bathroom isn't all studios. Studio apartments are technically any apartment with a single room (plus bathroom and kitchenette) and can vary from the smallest of living spaces to convertible studios to giant loft apartments, labeling plenty of studios as a luxury. In the U.S., an average studio apartment is about 530 square feet, according to our research.

• While New York has the highest price per square foot for a studio apartment anywhere in the U.S. at $7.71, it still contains the smallest average-sized studios among the top 40 most expensive at 444 square feet. Compare that divide in New York — $7.71 per square foot for an average 444 square foot — to Grand Rapids, MI. Grand Rapids, one of America's great beer cities, also averages 444 square feet for a studio apartment, but the average rent per square foot is just $2.30 — more than three times cheaper than the same space in New York.
• Another city where streams of young people dream of finding a vocational future is Washington D.C. Bright-eyed interns on both Capitol Hill and K Street come from all over the nation to fight for their beliefs and make a name for themselves. At the same time, delegations of Congressional support staff and local interest groups flood in from districts representing states from Alaska to Wyoming, leaving families back home while Congress is in session, and forcing a need for comfortable yet small apartments. That shoots Washington into the top 10 of the most expensive studio apartment cities at $4.37 per square foot.
• And what about all the young star wannabes heading out to Tinseltown to make it big on the big screen? Studio apartment rents in Hollywood, CA are the 11th highest per square foot at $4.15. But the trade-off is you get a lot of bang for your buck, with the largest studio apartments in the top 50 at an average of 723 square feet.
• At number 46, Las Vegas is the only average rent in the top 50 cities under $1,000 a month, at just $948. Add to that the top 50's smallest apartments at only 421 square feet on average and that gives you a minuscule rent price per square foot at $2.25.
• Philadelphia (at 27) and Baltimore (36) come in way further down the list than their Northeast Corridor counterparts New York, Boston and Washington at rental prices per square foot for a studio apartment. But the drop is even more precipitous for one and two-bedroom apartments where Philly and Charm City don't even fall inside the top 50.

Looking for a nice, cheap studio apartment? Well, if you're searching in one of these top 50 cities for price per square foot, you're still going to pay a pretty penny. But no worries, at least they're still pretty tiny.

One-bedroom apartments

Couples without children, single professionals with no desire to house a roommate, close siblings … there many groups of people who seek out one-bedroom apartments. It's a cost-effective setup for those who have outgrown the intimacy of a studio, or never considered the wonders of sleeping next to your kitchen.

As well, the abundance of single bedroom units in city centers and multi-story apartment towers make the floorplan a great pathway into highly desirable areas without paying exorbitant prices.

The average one-bedroom apartment in the U.S. is about 760 square feet, so it stands to reason that just about half of the top 50 most expensive units per square foot are bigger than that and half coming in a bit smaller. But whatever your reason for leasing a single bedroom, the cost per square foot in many cities may leave you wondering how you can fit a roommate into your living room.

• For example, it's expensive to live in California. Not only is Santa Monica the costliest city for one-bedrooms at $7.03 per square foot, but 28 of the 50 highest-priced one-bedroom averages are in the Golden State. Eleven of those are in the Bay Area and Northern California and 17 around Los Angeles and SoCal. It makes sense, as California has the highest cost of living of any state in the contiguous U.S. That's the price you get for living in trendy San Francisco or sunny L.A.
• Outside of the bevy of cities in California, every other single most expensive average one-bedroom city sits in the northeast U.S., with the exception of two sets of neighboring towns further down the list.
• The Denver suburbs of Boulder (another one of America's best craft beer cities) and Highlands Ranch (a community just under 40 years old) come it at numbers 31 and 50, respectively. And up in the Northwest, Seattle, at $3.55 per square foot ranks number 30 and its neighbor Bellevue, just 10 miles away across Lake Washington, falls at number 45 with an average of $3.27.
• The hipster enclave of Brooklyn and the upscale, revitalized neighborhood of Long Island City on the western tip of Queens are both just across the East River from Manhattan, and both are in the top 10 most expensive for one-bedrooms, yet don't even crack the top 50 for studios or two bedrooms. And actually, that statistic makes a lot of sense. Brooklyn is a haven for young, bohemian hipsters attracted to New York city life but prefer arts, music and café communities like Williamsburg and Bushwick that offer a bevy of single bedroom lofts and garden apartments. LIC, on the other hand, is a gleaming clean city of the future, attractive to young and wealthy Financial District couples seeking extended honeymoon status in high-rise one-bedrooms overlooking Midtown.
• All those Brooklyn basements, lofts, duplexes and walk-ups might be much more attractive than some faceless Chelsea high-rise. But to fit a myriad of low-slung apartments into the most populous county on the East Coast (and the second-most densely populated), some sacrifices need to be made. To that end, King County's Brooklyn offers the smallest one-bedroom apartments among the top 50 most expensive with an average of just 593 square feet.
• While only coming in as the 41st most expensive per square foot one-bedroom city, Needham, MA jumps up to the 18th highest rent on the list overall at $3,152 a month. As is often the case, it's because size does matter. At 932 square feet, the Boston suburb features the largest average floor plan of any city in the top 50. And the town is hopeful its residents will stay around a long time. In 2005, Needham became the first city in the nation to raise the legal age to purchase cigarettes to 21.

For many, the lack of a separate sleeping space is a non-starter in looking at studio apartments. But the upgrade to a one-bedroom might not be that much more per square foot, but the jump in overall prices may be prohibitive for many.

It may be more affordable for a couple, but for a single-renter, the inability to move in a roommate could prove difficult. Here are the top 50 costliest one-bedrooms per square foot.

Two-bedroom apartments

Whether you're a young couple with an only child looking to live in the city, a cost-conscious renter splitting a hefty price tag with a roommate or remote or freelance worker setting up an office or creative retreat, two-bedroom apartments are the most flexible option for many renters.

Despite an increase in millennials seeking out one-bedrooms — and despite a related increase in single bedroom units created in new construction — two-bedroom setups remain the most common apartment unit mix in America.

While a two-bedroom apartment typically comes in a standard layout of one large bedroom and one smaller bedroom, as well as a living room, master bath (and possibly an entranceway half-bath) and dining room off a compact kitchen, a two-bedroom setup can be found in nearly any apartment type. Two bedrooms can be leased in a range of styles from a classic five or a floor-through to a railroad apartment, winged apartment or even a penthouse.

• Monica and Rachel's apartment on “Friends" is estimated to be about 1,500 square feet. Monica asserted her rent was $200 a month (explaining it was her grandmother's rent-controlled unit from the 1940s), but experts believe the West Village two-bedroom would rent today for about $4,500 monthly. Using those estimates, Monica and Rachel claim to pay about three dollars per square foot in today's money for the two-person walk-up across the hall from Joey and Chandler. In truth, the "Friends" walk-up is about twice the size of the average New York two-bedroom, and two-and-a-half times cheaper as the city carries the nation's most expensive average at $7.47 per square foot.
• An average two-bedroom apartment in the U.S. runs about 1,080 square feet, which is also about average for the top 50 most expensive two-bedroom cities, as well, with 17 measuring smaller.
• Two cities on this top 50 come in very close to around that average, both satellite cities surrounding New York on each side. Yonkers, north of the city, is the biggest city in Westchester County and the largest N.Y.C. suburb. Hoboken, across the Hudson from Midtown, is one of the region's most important transportation hubs. A two-bedroom unit in Yonkers averages 1,121 square feet and one in Hoboken measures 1,130 square feet on average. But that's where the similarities diverge. Despite their proximity, Yonkers is 49th on the list at $2.83 per square foot while Hoboken is way up at number eight averaging $4.14.
• It probably comes as no surprise that 34 of the top 50 cities are in California or in the greater New York area. But what about seven locales in the Boston area? This college-heavy city is also heavy on expensive two-bedroom apartments. The city of Boston itself is the fourth most expensive at just more than five dollars per square foot. Cambridge (home to Harvard, of course) and Dorchester, which is one of Boston's largest neighborhoods, both came in among the top 20 costliest two bedrooms per square foot. That's rather pricey for a bunch of college students.
• Further out from downtown are the cities of Waltham and Malden in Middlesex County at numbers 25 and 48 respectively, and the southern New Hampshire hamlet of Derry at number 43.
• While an overwhelming number of cities on all three unit size lists are from the coasts, one city makes the two-bedroom list from an unexpected location in the Upper Midwest. At just under four dollars per square foot, the 13th most expensive city for two-bedroom apartments is the northern Detroit suburb of Ferndale. The city of 20,000 sits, ironically, just across the city line from one of America's most affordable places in which to rent due to declining population and decrease in demand. But for Michiganders with the means to move out to Oakland County, Ferndale entices as a progressive, LGBT-friendly suburb. But beware of the town's expensive rents and slight floor plans, the third smallest among the top 50.
• Chicago may be America's third most populous city, but the Great Lakes metropolis is a sure beat cheaper in which to live than New York or L.A. But while the Windy City doesn't even crack the top 50 most expensive cities for studios or one-bedrooms, it does pop in at number 46 for two bedrooms. Considering all that Chicago offers from dining to music, lakefront recreation to spectator sports, it's a relative steal. While it costs just under three dollars per square foot to rent a two sleeper unit in Chi-town, that's a dollar cheaper than similar setups in Los Angeles and nearly two-and-a-half times cheaper than shacking up in Manhattan.

A second bedroom opens up a ton of possibilities for apartment hunters, from giving yourself space to set up an office to making a nursery to setting a room aside for a roommate. But in some of the top 50 most expensive cities, you'll be paying as much as a house in many places.

Methodology

The rent information included in this article is based on October 2019 rental property inventory on Apartment Guide and is used for illustrative purposes only. Cities were excluded if they did not have at least 20 units in our available inventory. The data contained herein do not constitute financial advice or a pricing guarantee for any apartment.