Cities for Rental Housing

Are you thinking of moving to another city for work or financial reasons? If you’re looking for the best places to rent, low-cost housing or not, here are some guidelines to see if it’s a good idea:

1) If the price of a house or housing unit is 15 times higher if bought outright than the average rental rate, then it’s better to rent.

2) Factor in how long you plan to stay. At some point, the cost of renting year after year will overtake the cost of having bought the property or unit outright.

3) Do take into account utilities and security costs (if there are).

4) Find out first if there has been a large influx of houses for sale on the market. It’s possible that this will mean that many families have gone into rental housing, and that may mean less units available in the price range that you’re looking for.

The best cities

Some cities most definitely have better rental housing, due to many reasons.

In the West coast, California is the epicenter for rental housing these days, with Sacramento, San Diego and San Francisco topping the list. You can look at Seattle, too.

Back East, New York and Boston take the lead.

You should also look in Omaha and Kansas.

Remember, while these are the best places to rent, rental rates do vary among the cities – find out if your prospective job can afford the rates, or if you have enough laid away to survive until you get a good job.