What Can $2,500 a Month Budget Afford to Rent? In Some Cities It’s a House, In Others, a One-Bedroom

A new Zillow analysis found that a household earning $100,000 can afford about 77% of rental listings nationwide, compared with just 31% for a typical renter household earning about $58,000. But the difference between cities can be striking.

In Memphis, Tennessee, a renter with a $2,500 monthly budget can typically find a four-bedroom, single-family home measuring about 2,119 square feet.

In San Jose, California, the same budget typically gets a one-bedroom rental measuring 650 square feet.

Zillow based the comparison on the commonly used affordability guideline of spending no more than 30% of gross income on rent. For a household earning $100,000 a year, that works out to a maximum monthly rental budget of about $2,500.

Nationally, the median listed rent between January and August was $1,750, while the typical market rent was $1,932.

At the $2,500 level, renters can access nearly 20% more living space than a household earning the typical renter income, according to the analysis. They also have considerably more access to single-family homes.

About 30% of rentals affordable to a six-figure household are single-family homes, compared with 19% across the broader rental market. Another 18% are condos and 52% are apartments. The choices look very different in some of the country's more affordable metros.

$100,000 a Year Can Rent A House In Some Cities

Oklahoma City had the lowest median listed rent among the 50 largest metros in Zillow's analysis, at $1,250.

A renter shopping near the top of a $100,000 household's budget could typically get about 2,000 square feet and three bedrooms there. Roughly 77% of qualifying listings were single-family homes.

Memphis offered even more space, with a median of 2,119 square feet and four bedrooms. About 73% of rentals within the budget were single-family homes. Other cities also gave six-figure earners considerably more room.

In Houston, the typical qualifying rental measured 1,848 square feet and had three bedrooms, while 62% of the available properties were single-family homes.

San Antonio offered a median 1,874 square feet and three bedrooms. Raleigh offered about 1,885 square feet, also with three bedrooms.

In Las Vegas, a $100,000 household could typically access 1,796 square feet, with single-family homes making up 67% of qualifying rentals.

Then There's San Jose

The situation changes sharply in some coastal markets. San Jose had the highest median listed rent of any large metro in the study at $3,539, well above the $2,500 budget Zillow assigned to a $100,000 household.

At that budget, the typical available rental measured only 650 square feet and had one bedroom.

Just 5% of qualifying rentals were single-family homes, while 77% had one bedroom or less. Studios accounted for 13% of the options, and 15% were no larger than 500 square feet.

San Jose was not the only one. In San Francisco, a six-figure household's typical qualifying rental measured 729 square feet with one bedroom. About 60% of available properties had one bedroom or less.

San Diego offered 726 square feet, while Boston offered 758 square feet.

In Los Angeles, the median qualifying rental measured 750 square feet and had one bedroom. Only 5% of the affordable options were single-family homes.

New York offered a little more space at 801 square feet, but more than half of the rentals within budget had one bedroom or less.

Zillow found that a $100,000 household could typically rent more than 1,000 square feet in 40 of the 50 largest U.S. metros.

Same Salary, Different Options

The differences also show up in cities that sit between the two extremes. A six-figure household in Dallas could typically find 1,490 square feet and three bedrooms, while Atlanta offered about 1,644 square feet.

Chicago came in at 950 square feet and two bedrooms, while Washington, D.C., offered about 900 square feet.

Miami, where the median listed rent was $2,600, offered a median of 1,000 square feet and two bedrooms for renters shopping near the $2,500 mark.

The analysis also found that renters earning six figures were less likely to be considered rent-burdened, although high housing costs still affect some higher-income households.

In high-cost parts of coastal California, 47% of renter households earning between $85,000 and $99,000 spent more than 30% of their income on housing. Among households earning between $100,000 and $115,000, that share fell to 35%.

Even within expensive metros, Zillow found that moving the search to lower-cost neighborhoods could add about 250 square feet of living space while keeping the same $2,500 monthly budget.

Nationally, a $100,000 household shopping near the top of that budget would typically have access to a two-bedroom rental measuring about 1,152 square feet.