Median gross rent as a share of household income, the Census Bureau's own housing-burden line, lowest first.
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Rankings · Lowest Rent Burden by State
Lowest Rent Burden by State, North Dakota Leads (2026)
North Dakota has the lowest rent burden of the 50 states we rank, with rent at 25.0% of income (Census ACS, 2020-2024). South Dakota is next, with rent at 25.9% of income.
By The Honest Local · 50 states · every value links to its public source
25.0%North Dakota leads on the list, the lowest reading of all 50 states
The top five states
No. 1North Dakota25.0%rent as a share of income
No. 2South Dakota25.9%rent as a share of income
No. 3Wyoming27.0%rent as a share of income
No. 4Kansas27.1%rent as a share of income
No. 5Wisconsin27.2%rent as a share of income
Lowest Rent Burden by State on the map
Lowest rent burden by city and state, states
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Lowest Rent Burden by State, all 50
The full ranking
| Place | rent as a share of income | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | North Dakota | 25.0% |
| 2 | South Dakota | 25.9% |
| 3 | Wyoming | 27.0% |
| 4 | Kansas | 27.1% |
| 5 | Wisconsin | 27.2% |
| 6 | Iowa | 27.4% |
| 7 | Arkansas | 27.6% |
| 8 | Alaska | 27.7% |
| 9 | Montana | 27.8% |
| 10 | Nebraska | 27.9% |
| 11 | Kentucky | 28.1% |
| 11 | Missouri | 28.1% |
| 13 | Ohio | 28.3% |
| 14 | Oklahoma | 28.4% |
| 15 | Idaho | 28.7% |
| 16 | Utah | 28.9% |
| 17 | Illinois | 29.1% |
| 17 | Indiana | 29.1% |
| 19 | Minnesota | 29.2% |
| 19 | Pennsylvania | 29.2% |
| 19 | Rhode Island | 29.2% |
| 22 | Maine | 29.4% |
| 22 | New Hampshire | 29.4% |
| 22 | Vermont | 29.4% |
| 22 | Virginia | 29.4% |
| 22 | West Virginia | 29.4% |
| 27 | Alabama | 29.5% |
| 27 | North Carolina | 29.5% |
| 27 | Tennessee | 29.5% |
| 30 | Delaware | 29.9% |
| 31 | Washington | 30.0% |
| 32 | New Mexico | 30.1% |
| 33 | Michigan | 30.2% |
| 34 | Mississippi | 30.7% |
| 35 | Arizona | 30.8% |
| 35 | Maryland | 30.8% |
| 37 | Massachusetts | 30.9% |
| 37 | New Jersey | 30.9% |
| 37 | Texas | 30.9% |
| 40 | South Carolina | 31.1% |
| 41 | New York | 31.2% |
| 42 | Georgia | 31.3% |
| 42 | Oregon | 31.3% |
| 44 | Colorado | 31.4% |
| 44 | Connecticut | 31.4% |
| 46 | California | 32.8% |
| 46 | Louisiana | 32.8% |
| 48 | Nevada | 33.1% |
| 49 | Hawaii | 33.2% |
| 50 | Florida | 35.2% |
Sources and method
How we got this. Rent burden comes from tape_readings, which src/tape/acs-more.ts reads from the ACS 5-year table-based Summary File, table B25071: median gross rent as a percentage of household income for renter households. Thirty percent is the bar the Bureau and HUD call burdened. Cities and states each rank on their own list, lowest share first. It refreshes annual.
Rankings by The Honest Local from public data, one page per list, refreshed on each source’s own cycle. Places with no reading are left out rather than estimated. Every value on this page carries its source in the page’s structured data.
Photos Shutterstock.