CNBC's Yoni Blumberg reports that this July, the rental market's national average of hit an all-time record high of $1,409, according to the apartment search website RENTCafe. But, in some of America's priciest neighborhoods, $1,400 would be a bargain.
Using market data from Yardi Matrix, RENTCafe released a ranking of the priciest ZIP codes for renters in the U.S. and identified the most expensive ones by region. The most expensive ZIP code overall, 10282, is in Manhattan's Battery Park City, located along the Hudson River. The average rent is $5,657, which is down 1.8% from the previous year. All of the top 50 most expensive ZIP codes are in New York, California and Massachusetts. More than half, or 26 of the top 50, are in Manhattan, including the second most expensive ZIP code in the country: 10013, which extends from TriBeCa to SoHo. The average rent there is $5,226, up 10.6 percent from last year.
"While some Manhattan ZIPs will command four times the national average rent without much in the way of indecision, there are plenty of urban areas where you can easily find a decent apartment for less than half, or even a third, of it," RENTCafe reports. The average rent in Nashville, Tennessee, for instance, is only $1,974.
For those looking to move to a city with highly affordable rent, RENTCafe notes that Wichita, Kansas, Memphis, Tennessee, and Decatur, Alabama, all have average rents under $600.
