Fleeing High Rent in Major Cities? Why These ‘Affordable Refuge’ Metros Are Getting Pricier

High rents in cities such as Los Angeles, Chicago, and Washington, DC, have pushed many to relocate to "affordability refuges." But now, rents are rising in several of those cities.

The Realtor.com® September 2026 rental report shows that the national median asking rent for 0-2 bedroom properties is $1,694—down 0.4% year over year. This is the 38th consecutive month of annual declines.

However, across the 50 largest U.S. metropolitan areas, certain housing markets are bucking the national downward trend.

Many of these metros have long been considered "affordability refuges"—including St. Louis; Riverside, CA; Minneapolis; Virginia Beach, VA; and Las Vegas—and have traditionally offered economical alternatives to pricier nearby areas.

But with rising out-of-market rental demand driven by ever-widening searches for affordable housing and high interest rates keeping many from buying, these markets have recently seen modest upward pressure on rents.

Both St. Louis and Minneapolis, which rank among the 10 most affordable cities globally in Chapman University's Center for Demographics and Policy annual ranking, have recently felt the aftershocks of Chicago's increasingly pricey market. Here, the median asking rental price rose 2.3% to a record $1,909. This past quarter, nearly half of St. Louis' and around a quarter of Minneapolis' out-of-market rental demand came from Chicago.

That led to slight price pressure in both metros. In St. Louis, the median asking rent for a 0-2 bedroom unit rose 2% year over year to $1,300, while Minneapolis' median asking rent rose 1.7% to $1,509.

Similarly, Las Vegas and Riverside both attracted an influx of residents from Los Angeles, creating a small bump in both rental markets. Virginia Beach saw around 31% of its out-of-market interest from nearby Washington, DC.

In Riverside, where about 50% of out-of-market interest came from L.A., median asking rent rose a modest 0.2% to $2,104. In Las Vegas, which saw 31% of its out-of-market demand from L.A., median asking rents rose 0.9% to $1,473.

As always, those increases are relative and pale in comparison to Los Angeles' mammoth costs. Despite an overall 1.1% decrease in rental prices, L.A.'s median asking rent remains $2,851.

In Virginia Beach, rents rose 1.7% year over year, bringing the median asking rent to $1,539, still about $700 less per month than in Washington, DC, where the median asking rent was $2,258.

"A lot of the people I see landing in Virginia Beach are coming down from Northern Virginia," says Daniel Yoon, a real estate adviser with eXp Realty.

"They're used to paying Northern Virginia prices, so a rent that looks high to a local can look like a deal to them. That shows up fastest in the well-kept single-family rentals and townhomes in established neighborhoods with decent schools and an easy commute. The good ones don't sit long, and the ones that do sit usually have a problem with condition or price."

Yoon says Virginia Beach renters often grow frustrated with annual rental negotiations and start "doing the math" on buying instead.

"That's the more common form of pushback right now. Renters aren't winning a lot of negotiations, so they look for a way out of the cycle," he says.

Yoon points to his clients, Isaiah and Patience Foster, who rented for several years before putting down more permanent roots.

"Once the rent increases kept coming, buying stopped feeling like a stretch and started feeling justified," he says. "They told me, 'We felt like we were paying more every year for something we would never own. When we found the right home, we were ready to move fast because we've already done the homework as renters.'"

Like many cities, Virginia Beach has seen a knock-on effect on overall affordability as renters migrate from more expensive locales. A 2024 report from the Virginia Center for Housing Research and Housing Forward Virginia found that Virginia Beach faces significant affordability challenges.

The report cited a "lack of rental units affordable to very-low-income households" and "a shortage of units for above-average earners," which "creates undue pressure on moderately priced housing stock."

"In markets like St. Louis, Minneapolis, Virginia Beach, Riverside, and Las Vegas, I’m paying particular attention to the balance between new rental listings, available housing, and the types of housing newcomers want," says Cameron Walker of Clever Real Estate. "A city can remain relatively affordable overall while specific neighborhoods start to feel tighter with inventory and faster with rent increases."

The AI industry also drove up rental prices

Not surprisingly, tech hubs also saw median asking rent increases, driven by industry growth and an influx of itinerant tech workers.

In San Jose, CA, home to the headquarters of Adobe, Cisco, and PayPal, among others, rents jumped 6% year over year, pushing median asking rent to a record $3,565.

Perhaps the best marker of shifting demand in San Jose is the declining share of rental listings offering concessions, which fell from 51.9% to 24.3% year over year.

Meanwhile, the ultracompetitive San Francisco market saw rental asking prices jump 4.8%, with median rents now at $3,057.

One other city bucking the overall downward rental trend was Detroit. While Detroit is still down 1% year over year, the market saw a 6.6 percentage point upswing thanks to AI investment in the area, reduced rental inventory, and an influx of out-of-market renters from more expensive metros like New York City, Chicago, and Washington, DC.