National ranking · 2024 BEA RPP, rents
Metros with the highest rents
The 100 U.S. metro areas with the highest rent price index, isolating housing from goods and services. San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara tops the list at a rents RPP of 211.9 - 112% above the national rent average.
- 100
- Metros ranked
- 211.9
- #1 - San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara
- 98.7
- Bar to make the top 100
The verdict
Rents this high are rare: the #100 cutoff of 98.7 sits at the 74th percentile of all U.S. metro rents, and San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara clears #2 by 14.5 points.
- 74th pct
- the #100 rent cutoff
- +14.5
- RPP pts, #1 over #2
- 211.9
- #1 - San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara
According to the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis's 2024 Regional Price Parities, San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara leads the 100 metros with the highest rent index at 211.9. RPP 98.7 is the threshold for this list. The rent component compares metro-wide housing prices with the national average of 100; it is not an advertised rent or a unit-specific affordability estimate.
- San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara ranks #1 of 387 tracked metros by rents RPP
- Rents RPP 98.7 is the cutoff for the top 100 metros
According to the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, rents vary more across metros than any other cost category. This ranking draws on the rents component of the agency's 2024 Regional Price Parities, released on February 19, 2026 and covering all 387 metro areas. For a federal rent benchmark sized to your unit, cross-reference HUD Fair Market Rents; see our methodology for how the index is built.
The bar to make this list
Where the #100 rent cutoff sits among all U.S. metros
99 Top 26% higher than 74% of 387 US metros
Each bar is a band; taller bars hold more US metros. The dashed line + filled bar mark this entry. Hover or tap any bar for its full count, share, and where it sits relative to this entry.
Source U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, Regional Price Parities · 2024
The rent component of BEA's Regional Price Parities measures housing rental prices relative to the U.S. national average (100). This ranking isolates rents from goods and services to surface metros where housing pressure is the dominant cost driver. The top of the list, Honolulu, Santa Cruz-Watsonville, San Francisco-Oakland-Berkeley, San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, Bridgeport-Stamford-Norwalk, typically prices 60-80% above the national rent average, while the bottom of the metro list (rural Midwestern and Appalachian metros) sits 30-40% below.
BEA computes the rent index from American Community Survey rent observations, blended across all unit types. This means the index reflects an average rent, your specific 2-bedroom apartment may sit higher or lower than the BEA blend depending on local segmentation. For a federal benchmark sized to your unit, cross-reference HUD Fair Market Rent tables, which publish 40th-percentile rents by metro and bedroom count annually. Use the salary equivalent calculator to convert this rent context into a salary delta when evaluating relocation offers.
About This Ranking
The rent component of the Regional Price Parity (RPP) measures relative rent levels across U.S. metro areas. A value of 100 equals the national average. Cities above 100 have higher rents; below 100, lower rents. This ranking shows the 100 metros with the highest rent index, where housing costs are most elevated relative to the rest of the country.
What this means for you
The bar to make this top 100 is a rents RPP of 98.7, about the 74th percentile of all U.S. metros.
- San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara tops the list at rents RPP 211.9, the steepest housing premium PlainCost tracks. See full profile
- Rents drive the largest swing in the overall RPP formula, so a metro high on this list is very likely high on the overall ranking too. Overall cost rankings
Rents RPP is BEA's annual metro-wide benchmark for the data year shown, not a live listing price, and averages across unit types and neighborhoods within the metro.
Source: Bureau of Economic Analysis, Regional Price Parities by Metropolitan Statistical Area Index where national average = 100
Every figure on PlainCost is rendered directly from BEA Regional Price Parity source data, no number is typed in by an editor. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, our changelog, or report a data error. Data current as of 2026-08-11. Rankings measure the published cost-of-living index only; we don't recommend where to live or rate any metro's quality of life.