As rents soar, here's what $1,500 a month buys you across the U.S.
Rents are increasing by double-digits across the nation, but there's still a yawning gap between how far a dollar will get you in New York City versus Nebraska.
The best deal in the nation is Wichita, Kansas, where $1,500 will get you nearly 1,600 square feet, according to an analysis by apartment website RentCafe. The average rent across the metro area is $746.
At the other end of the spectrum is Manhattan, where $1,500 would cover only a third of the typical rent — and buy far less apartment. That sum would get a renter less than 300 square feet, a size that officially qualifies as a micro-unit.
As RentCafe puts it, "one apartment in Wichita could fit six Manhattan apartments for the same budget."
Prices aren't much better in other boroughs of New York. In Brooklyn or Queens that same $1,500 would typically get you between 300 and 400 square feet of living space.
With many office workers still clocking in remotely, apartment hunters eager for more space would do well to look at the nation's heartland. In addition to having relatively affordable rental markets, cities in Nebraska, Oklahoma and Iowa have dangled cash incentives to lure remote workers into putting down roots there.