U.S. Apartment Renting Costs Mapped

The New Year brings resolutions and new beginnings. If you’re planning on moving to a new city or state this year, you’ll want to be in the know about the highest and lowest apartment renting costs in the U.S. Our map makes it clear which cities have the highest apartment rent and which are the most affordable to settle down in. We also look into the cities that offer two-bedroom apartments for just 15% more than a one-bedroom and which cities you may have to consider putting the desk in the living room as the cost of a two-bedroom is just too steep. This map has got everything you need to make the most informed decision about moving in 2019.

View Median Rent by City in a full screen map

Check out the map above — based on Apartment List’s rental data — for information on specific cities. Then, read on for apartment cost stats and trends across the U.S.

Ten Cities With The Highest Apartment Rent

The top ten most expensive cities to rent a one-bedroom apartment are:

  1. Danville, CA — $4,368
  2. Cupertino, CA — $4,223
  3. Watchung, NJ — $3,971
  4. Melville, NY — $3,965
  5. Los Altos, CA — $3,846
  6. Florham Park, NJ — $3,676
  7. Edgewater, NJ — $3,668
  8. Marina del Rey, CA — $3,624
  9. San Mateo, CA — $3,542
  10. Rancho Palos Verdes, CA — $3,444

As you can see, six of the ten most expensive cities to rent a one-bedroom apartment in are located in California. Danville is where you’ll pay the most in apartment rent, along with Cupertino. Cities in New Jersey and New York join the ranks of Danville and Cupertino with the most expensive one-bedroom apartment rents. New Jersey has three cities in the top ten while only one city in New York — Melville — ranks this high. Even within the top ten, the difference in rent can be nearly as high as 1K. As you go lower down the rankings of the over 1,400 cities we mapped, the difference in rent diminishes.

Settle Down In The Ten Cities With The Most Affordable Apartments

There are some extremely budget-friendly cities where a one-bedroom apartment will save you more than thirteen times the cost of that same apartment in the most expensive city in the U.S. None of these cities of savings are located in any of the three states where rent is most expensive, as per the top ten. The least expensive cities to rent a one-bedroom apartment are:

  • Anniston, AL — $329
  • Hopkinsville, KY — $483
  • Vandalia, OH — $489
  • Kingsport, TN — $493
  • Waterloo, IA — $494
  • Lawton, OK — $498
  • Turtle Creek, PA — $502
  • Fort Smith, AR — $502
  • Jefferson City, MO — $505
  • Pocatello, ID — $515

Largest Discrepancies From Room To Room

You’d think the going rate for a one-bedroom apartment and a two-bedroom apartment would yield similar rankings city by city. However, that’s not actually the case. Let’s take, for example, our top ten most expensive cities to get a one-bedroom apartment in:

  1. Danville, CA
  2. Cupertino, CA
  3. Watchung, NJ
  4. Melville, NY
  5. Los Altos, CA
  6. Florham Park, NJ
  7. Edgewater, NJ
  8. Marina del Rey, CA
  9. San Mateo, CA
  10. Rancho Palos Verdes, CA

Now let’s see the top ten most expensive cities for two-bedroom apartments:

  1. Danville, CA
  2. Cupertino, CA
  3. Los Altos, CA*
  4. Watchung, NJ*
  5. Melville, NY*
  6. Marina del Rey, CA*
  7. San Mateo, CA*
  8. Rancho Palos Verdes, CA*
  9. Florham Park, NJ*
  10. Edgewater, NJ*

Both Danville and Cupertino, California remain in the same position for one and two-bedroom apartments ranked. But as for the rest of the ten most expensive cities to rent a two-bedroom apartment, while they contain the same names, they’re not quite in the same order as the most expensive one-bedroom cities. For example, California cities move higher up in the ranks for the larger, two-bedroom apartments.

Overall, two-bedroom apartments will cost you 24% more on average than a single bedroom. Some places will give you a good deal on that larger apartment, though. For cities like Daphne, Alabama, Macon, Georgia, and lots of cities in Virginia, the rent of a two-bedroom apartment is only about 15% higher than one-bedrooms. Might as well have an office or guest bedroom! In other cases, such as in Elizabethtown, Kentucky, Flint, Michigan, and both Springfield and Eugene, Oregon, you’ll be paying at least 33% more. Are you sure you can’t get by with a single bedroom? The desk can go in the living room.

Rent By State

Photo by Jace Grandinetti on Unsplash

The most expensive cities aside, the states and districts in the U.S. that are most likely to yield you one or two-bedroom apartments at above-average rates are Washington D.C., Hawaii, and California, and not exactly in that order. Washington D.C. is by far the most expensive place to live in the U.S. if you’re searching for a one-bedroom apartment, followed by Hawaii and California. However, for a two-bedroom apartment, Hawaii is the most expensive, then California, followed by Washington D.C.

The least expensive states to rent in? South Dakota, Arkansas, and West Virginia.


Now that you know where to move based on how much rent you are willing to pay each month, it’s time to start hunting in the area you’ve nailed down. Let BatchGeo make the apartment hunting process the easiest and most thorough it can be by making an apartment hunting map.

100 Years Later: Major 1919 Events Mapped Out

The year 1919 occurred exactly 100 years ago. As we look back, we can acknowledge the events that took place in 1919 which had lasting effects, even on our lives today. For example, in 1919 the predecessor of the Nazi party was formed. Moreover, the Treaty of Versailles also brought an end to World War I. Additionally, the oldest existing airline, Royal Dutch Airlines, was established in 1919 as was the future of Prohibition in the United States. Plus, in 1919 the first woman got elected to the British House of Commons. Also worth noting is that the White Sox threw the World Series in 1919.

View 1919 Historical Events in a full screen map

Above all, 1919 was a year of many important firsts and many tragic events. Use the categories to easily navigate the map above, or read on for highlights from nearly 200 major events from 100 years ago.

Politics

The political events of 1919 brought widespread change around the world. For the U.S., President Woodrow Wilson suffered a stroke in October that debilitated him for the rest of his life. Before his stroke, President Wilson actively supported the ratification of the Treaty of Versailles. Yet, the Senate rejected the treaty anyway. Also occurring in 1919: the Eighteenth Amendment was ratified, authorizing Prohibition, even against President Wilson’s veto. In Oregon, the first state tax on gasoline went into effect, starting at one cent per gallon.

Around the world, the League of Nations was established in order to resolve international disputes. Towards the end of the year, Britain observed the first Remembrance Day in honor of those who lost their lives during World War I. There were also 26 politically motivated strikes and uprisings that took place in 1919. This includes the Winnipeg general strike and the Spartacist uprising.

Women’s Rights

1919 was quite the year for women. Germany, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands gave women the right to vote. The U.S. was not too far behind — in 1919, Congress approved the 19th Amendment to legalize women’s suffrage. Though the states had to ratify the amendment first which didn’t occur until 1920. Belgium also gave certain classes of women the right to vote in 1919. Plus, American-born Nancy Astor became the first woman elected to the British House of Commons.

War

The Polish-Soviet War began in 1919, which unfortunately saw the massacre of 35 Jewish residents of Pinsk. 1919 was also the start of the Egyptian Revolution and the continuation of the Mexican Revolution. On a better note, 1919 brought the conclusion of World War I with the Treaty of Versailles in June.

Russia’s Civil War began at the end of 1917 and continued well into 1919 when the last of the British army’s troops left Archangel. This left the fighting to the Russians. As for the Estonian War of Independence, ongoing since November of 1918, 1919 saw the Battle of Cēsis. Today, the anniversary of the Battle of Cēsis is celebrated as Victory Day in Estonia.

Disaster

There were seven major disasters that occurred in 1919. The 1918 influenza pandemic carried on into 1919, killing between 50 and 100 million people worldwide. Though, in November of 1919, health officials declared this particular flu over. Also in 1919, the volcanic eruption of Kelud in Java killed 5,000 folks. The Florida Keys hurricane hit and killed 600 people throughout the Gulf of Mexico, Florida, and Texas. To see the most tragic hurricanes and other disasters, check out our map of the most disastrous natural disasters.

One of the United Kingdom’s worst maritime disasters of the 20th century occurred in 1919. The HMY Iolaire yacht sunk off the coast of Scotland, resulting in the deaths of 201 of the 283 people aboard. In the U.S., a wave of literal molasses swept through Boston, killing 21 and injuring an additional 150 people. In Chicago, an aircraft caught on fire over downtown. This disaster killed two passengers, one aircrew person, and ten bystanders. Lastly, a fire caused New Orleans’ landmark, the French Opera House, to burn down.

Nobel Prize Winners

Four outstanding minds won Nobel Prizes in 1919. This is one less laurate than most years as the Nobel Committee did not award the Chemistry Prize. The Nobel Prize winners of 1919 included German physicist Johannes Stark who won the Physics Nobel Prize. Jules Bordet of Belgium won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. Swiss poet Carl Friedrich Georg Spitteler won for Literature in 1919, and U.S. President Woodrow Wilson earned the Nobel Peace Prize of 1919. To find out more about the world’s Nobel Prize laureates, check out “The Noblest By Country: Nobel Prize Winners Mapped.”

Culture

Perhaps the most memorable cultural event that took place in 1919 was the World Series. The Cincinnati Reds beat the Chicago White Sox, though fans later discovered that the White Sox intentionally lost. Had the White Sox not thrown the game, they would now have four World Series wins under their belt with five appearances. The White Sox would also have a winning percentage of 80% had they not thrown the 1919 World Series. Instead, the White Sox have a very different MLB World Series profile, which you can find within our map of the World Series winners and losers.

Some very important non-sport-related firsts took place in 1919, including the creation of the Montreal radio station, XWA, now CINW. It was the first public radio station in North America to go on air. Plus, the world’s oldest airline to keep its name — KLM in the Netherlands — was formed in 1919.

Speaking of airlines, a great many firsts for transatlantic flight occurred in 1919. The U.S. sent a seaplane piloted by Albert Cushing Read on the first flight across the Atlantic Ocean, flying from Long Island to England. This important first took 23 days to complete, included six stops, and paved the way for two additional firsts: the first westbound transatlantic flight from Scotland to New York and the first non-stop transatlantic flight.


As you can see, 1919 was a very memorable year, and here we are, one hundred years later. Plot some history of your own with a map today.

Google Fusion Tables Alternative for Copy-Paste Maps

It’s the end of the line for Google Fusion Tables. The search giant announced that it will shut down its experimental data visualization tool. Since it first came out of Google Labs in 2009, people have used the service, which was a combination of spreadsheet and database, to store data, then display maps and charts that analyze the data.

The maps became an especially popular part of Google Fusion Tables, because geocoding was built-in. With a list of addresses in Fusion Tables, Google would automatically create geographic coordinates and plot them on a map. While you can get much of the charting from Google Spreadsheets, Excel, and other tabular tools, the maps are harder to replace. To make a map from your Fusion Tables data, you either learning to program the Google Maps API or look for a tool outside of Google.

We’ll show how you can replace your Google Fusion Tables maps with BatchGeo. It’s an easy import/export process to get even more powerful maps than Fusion Tables provided.

Export a Fusion Table to CSV

The first thing you need to do is find your Fusion Tables and decide on which one you want to turn into a map. We’ll need to export your Fusion Table to CSV–that’s a comma-separated value file, a format easy to open in spreadsheets and works nicely with lots of tools.

  1. Make sure you’re logged into your Google account, then list your Fusion Tables in Google Drive by searching for type:table.

  2. Double-click the Fusion Table you want to export to open it.

  3. Click the File menu, then select Download.

  4. Confirm the details and click Download again

The file should now download to your computer (or you should be prompted to choose a location). Once you find the CSV file on your computer, you’ve successfully exported your Google Fusion Table.

Now you can repeat the process with other tables you want to download. Before Google Fusion Tables is completely shut down, Google will create a way to download everything at once. In the meantime, we need to go one at a time.

Choose your favorite table and head to the next section to see how quickly you can turn it into a powerful map with BatchGeo.

Import a CSV Into a Map

With your Fusion Table downloaded, you now have a CSV sitting on your hard drive, waiting to be turned into a map. If you want to look at the data or edit it, you can open the CSV file in Excel, Numbers, or any other spreadsheet program (including Google Spreadsheets!). You can also view it in an ordinary text file, though you’ll need to be careful, as the formatting is important to help maintain the columns and rows.

If you open up your CSV file in a spreadsheet program, you’ll see the headers and data from your Fusion Table:

Now simply follow these steps:

  1. Highlight and copy the entire spreadsheet, including the header row.
  2. Go to the BatchGeo homepage
  3. Click in the big box and paste your data.

Now you’ll see your data within the big box on the BatchGeo home page. Click the “Map Now” button and see your data transformed into a map in seconds.

Alternatively, you can skip the step of opening the data in your spreadsheet. Simply drag the CSV file into the big box on the BatchGeo home page. We’ll do the importing for you!

Either way, you now have a map easily made from your Google Fusion Tables data. BatchGeo performs automatic geocoding of your addresses so they can be placed on a map.

Do More With Your Map

In addition to creating simple maps, BatchGeo also displays your non-geographic data automatically. You can click on markers to see details, or use some other features to get more information from your map.

View Google Fusion Tables Exported Map in a full screen map

If you have other columns within your data, such as categories or types, you’ll be able to use the map filtering and grouping technology within BatchGeo. In our example map, the color of the markers are determined by the different values in the “Type” column. You can click a label in the bottom of the map to see only the markers you want.

Another way to display additional data within the map itself is to enable map marker clustering, which will display high density markers with circles sized accordingly. In addition, you can pick a numeric column from your dataset and display the average or sum from that column for the area covered.

Now that you’ve transformed your Google Fusion Tables, there are countless other ways to bring your data to life, including BatchGeo Advanced Mode, available with Pro accounts.