The Surprising Midwestern City Where Renters Are Paying the Cheapest Price

by Snejana Farberov

skyline-of-jacksonville

Getty Images

If you’re thinking of leasing an apartment in the Midwest, your best bet might just be Cleveland, which saw the steepest rent decline in the region in December 2024.

Ohio’s second-largest city had the lowest average rent in December out of all 12 states that make up the Midwest region, coming in at just $1,184 a month for a typical apartment with up to two rooms. That’s down 3.4% compared with the same period a year ago, according to the latest available data from Realtor.com®.

For comparison, that is nearly three times cheaper than the median rent in San Jose, CA, the most expensive rental market in the nation, where the typical rental cost $3,305 per month in December, up more than 3% from the year before.

The rent in Cleveland was also significantly lower than the national median asking rent, which stood at $1,695 last month, having dipped below $1,700 for the first time since April 2022. It represents a 1.1% drop year over year.

Overall, December marked the 17th consecutive month of year-over-year rent decline for apartments with up to two bedrooms in the 50 largest U.S. metros.

“Though the rent declines over the past year and five months have been consistent, they haven’t amounted to major relief from the peak level reached in July 2022,” says Realtor.com Chief Economist Danielle Hale. “December’s figure is just 3.7% below that all-time high and still 16% above the mark from December 2019.”

Cleveland, OH
Cleveland, OH, had the lowest median rent in the Midwest in December 2024.

(Getty Images)

Absorption rates for new rentals drop

Cleveland was also among America’s major cities that benefited the most from a decrease in the absorption rate—the share of newly built rental units that are successfully leased out within three months of completed construction—signaling a softening rental market in the Midwest.

The home of the world-famous Rock and Rock Hall of Fame is not the only city in the region boasting ultra-affordable rental properties.

Chicago saw its typical rent shrink by 2.8% year over year, to $1,785, followed by neighboring Milwaukee, where the median rent decreased by 1.2%, to $1,593. 

Apartment in Cleveland, OH
This one-bedroom, one-bath apartment at 2836 Franklin Boulevard in Cleveland can be rented for $1,129 a month.

(Realtor.com)

Apartment building in Cleveland, OH
A one-bedroom, one-bath apartment in this building at 2905 Franklin Boulevard in Cleveland, OH, goes for $1,150 a month.

(Realtor.com)

Oklahoma City, OK, earned the distinction of having the lowest median rent in the U.S., at $1,015 last month, but that figure represented a 1.3% uptick from the year before.   

Elsewhere in the South, Memphis, TN, saw the biggest year-over-year drop in rents, at 6.7%, followed by Austin, TX, at 5%, and Nashville, TN, at 4.4%. Those numbers are in line with the South’s shrinking absorption rates.

But nowhere in the U.S. have the absorption rates declined as dramatically as in the West, where rental apartment buildings have been going up at a frenzied pace, boosting the supply of new units.

On the other side of that spectrum, the Northeast emerged last month as the region with the highest absorption rates—and the only market in which the rate skyrocketed compared to last year. 

“This trend corresponds with ongoing annual rent growth in markets like New York City, where rental prices continue to climb,” says Hale.

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