- Apartment List ranked Austin first among 71 cities for renters, followed by Salt Lake City, Charleston, Seattle, Arlington, Charlotte, Raleigh, Atlanta, Phoenix and Nashville.
- Austin’s vacancy is 9.0% versus 6.8% nationally, rents are down 2.3% over the past year, and over half of apartments offer more than a month of free rent.
- Nationwide rents were down 0.4% in September 2026, but conditions range from Austin’s 20% decline from peak to San Francisco’s 26% jump in a year.
Austin tops Apartment List’s 2026 best cities for renters ranking, helped by falling rents, high vacancy and a strong job market, the company reported.
Apartment List scored 71 cities on 16 measures grouped into five categories, covering housing costs, renter bargaining power, living expenses, jobs and quality of life.
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Why Austin Wins
Apartment List says Austin’s strength is leverage. Vacancy is 9.0% against 6.8% nationally, rents slipped 2.3% in the past year and sit more than 20% below the 2022 peak, and over half of apartments offer more than a month free.
The city also ranks first for economic opportunity, with 3.3% unemployment, 7% job growth over three years and $70,155 in median renter household income, per Apartment List.
Soft Markets Versus Hot Ones
Salt Lake City places second with a $1,252 median rent, rents down 3.2%, 10.8% vacancy and a 61.6% concession rate. Its drawback is income: $53,821 for the median renter household, the lowest in the top 10, Apartment List found.
Charleston, third, runs hot. Rents rose 2.9%, vacancy is 6.5%, and the city added 6,500 jobs in three years, which Apartment List says outpaced population gains.
High Rents, High Incomes
Seattle and Arlington rank on income rather than price. Seattle’s median rent of $2,088 runs roughly half again above the $1,388 national figure, but just 42.9% of renters are cost-burdened versus 51.8% nationally, Apartment List reported.
Arlington’s median rent is $2,610 and renter income $107,656. Its renter urgency rate of 49.7% is the highest in the top 10, a sign of competitive leasing.
The Rest of the Top 10
Charlotte, sixth, has 9.4% vacancy, rents down 2.6% and 57% of properties offering a month free, Apartment List reported. Raleigh, seventh, pairs 3.3% unemployment and 6.0% job growth with 8.1% vacancy and rents down 1.1%.
Atlanta, eighth, has flat rents and 47% of properties offering concessions. Phoenix, ninth, has a $1,388 median rent, rents down 2.9% and a 36.8% urgency rate, the lowest in the group.
Nashville, tenth, has 8.1% vacancy and rents down 2.3%, though Apartment List sees early signs of tightening, with a 44% urgency rate second only to Arlington.
Why It Matters
Rents fell 0.4% nationally in September, per Apartment List, and the spread between markets is wide. CRE Daily’s coverage of a McKinney ranking shows how methodology can change which city comes out on top.
For owners, the message is that renters still hold leverage in places like Austin and Phoenix, where 52% of properties offer a month free. The top 10 splits between soft markets such as Austin and Salt Lake City and tighter ones such as Charleston and Arlington, so local supply and job growth matter more than the national average. CRE Daily also covered Zillow’s view of the rent-buy divide across major markets.
What’s Next
Watch whether Austin’s absorption catches up with supply. Charleston’s low vacancy suggests rent growth could return first in markets where jobs outrun new construction.
