As a New Yorker, I’m stunned to learn that my decade of rent hikes have been overstated. That’s one lesson to take from a new report by apartment rental service PropertyClub, which analyzed Zillow data from 2010-2019 to see which cities saw the greatest percentage rent increase during the last decade (h/t Axios).
Based on the rental data from 100 U.S. cities, the largest rent hikes weren’t in San Francisco, Seattle or New York, although they were all in the top 15. Instead, the biggest rent increases happened in Aurora, Colo. (73%) and Boise, Idaho (53%).
To put that in dollars: Aurora’s rent averaged $1190 in 2010 but was up to $2060 in 2019, which is actually now a higher average rent than in the increasingly unaffordable Seattle.
Aurora — essentially a suburb of Denver — is “home to large corporations and high-profile employers that attract professionals to the area,” as PropertyClub notes. “Its strategic location, just 20 minutes away from Denver and the Denver International Airport, makes it an appealing destination for renters who work in the metropolitan area. The city also lies just 35 miles away from Boulder, Colo., where Google operates its new campus.”
As for Boise? Credit low unemployment (2.3%) and average job growth that’s higher than the U.S. average.
Meanwhile, San Francisco didn’t even win on median rent: At $3137, it’s actually a bit more affordable than San Jose, Fremont or Irvine.
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