Rent growth is the number that makes a thin deal look good on paper. The tables below rank the counties where typical rent has climbed the most over the past twelve months. They rebuild themselves each month from Zillow's county rent index, so the ranking is current whenever you read it.
Counties with the fastest rent growth
Counties with at least 100,000 residents, ranked by year-over-year increase.
| Rank | County | Typical rent | Change from a year ago |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | San Francisco County, CA | $4,784 | +26.3% |
| 2 | Calcasieu Parish, LA | $1,356 | +19.2% |
| 3 | Oswego County, NY | $1,384 | +19.1% |
| 4 | Walworth County, WI | $1,786 | +16.8% |
| 5 | Linn County, IA | $1,262 | +14.1% |
| 6 | Madison County, MS | $1,676 | +11.6% |
| 7 | San Mateo County, CA | $3,993 | +11.2% |
| 8 | Hawaii County, HI | $2,562 | +10.2% |
| 9 | Clark County, OH | $1,199 | +9.6% |
| 10 | Fond du Lac County, WI | $1,128 | +9.3% |
| 11 | Santa Clara County, CA | $3,817 | +8.6% |
| 12 | Washoe County, NV | $2,069 | +8.4% |
| 13 | Potter County, TX | $1,133 | +8.3% |
| 14 | La Porte County, IN | $1,202 | +8.2% |
| 15 | Virginia Beach City, VA | $2,098 | +8.2% |
| 16 | Ada County, ID | $1,984 | +8.2% |
| 17 | Saginaw County, MI | $1,055 | +8.1% |
| 18 | Wichita County, TX | $1,325 | +8.1% |
| 19 | Marin County, CA | $3,865 | +8.0% |
| 20 | Jefferson County, NY | $1,496 | +7.8% |
| 21 | DeKalb County, IL | $1,400 | +7.8% |
| 22 | Randall County, TX | $1,446 | +7.8% |
| 23 | Chautauqua County, NY | $1,078 | +7.8% |
| 24 | Johnson County, IA | $1,760 | +7.7% |
| 25 | Ouachita Parish, LA | $1,202 | +7.7% |
September 2026 compared with the same month a year earlier, counties with at least 100,000 residents. Rent fell in 22 of the 596 counties in this group. Source: Zillow Observed Rent Index, refreshed monthly.
The largest counties with rising rents
The same ranking limited to counties with at least 500,000 residents, where the change reflects thousands of leases and not a handful of listings.
| Rank | County | Typical rent | Change from a year ago |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | San Francisco County, CA | $4,784 | +26.3% |
| 2 | San Mateo County, CA | $3,993 | +11.2% |
| 3 | Santa Clara County, CA | $3,817 | +8.6% |
| 4 | Alameda County, CA | $2,956 | +7.5% |
| 5 | Suffolk County, NY | $3,352 | +6.7% |
| 6 | Bronx County, NY | $2,823 | +6.2% |
| 7 | New York County, NY | $4,779 | +5.8% |
| 8 | Kings County, NY | $3,858 | +5.4% |
| 9 | Cook County, IL | $2,228 | +5.3% |
| 10 | Milwaukee County, WI | $1,507 | +5.2% |
| 11 | Westchester County, NY | $3,097 | +5.2% |
| 12 | Cuyahoga County, OH | $1,413 | +5.0% |
| 13 | Kent County, MI | $1,602 | +4.8% |
| 14 | Wayne County, MI | $1,402 | +4.7% |
| 15 | Providence County, RI | $2,053 | +4.7% |
September 2026 compared with the same month a year earlier, counties with at least 500,000 residents. Rent fell in 6 of the 139 counties in this group. Source: Zillow Observed Rent Index, refreshed monthly.
Why last year's rent growth is a poor forecast
A county at the top of this list is telling you what already happened. Three things tend to follow a big year.
- Builders respond. Fast rent growth is the signal developers wait for. The new units arrive two to three years later, often all at once.
- Tenants hit a ceiling. Rent cannot outrun local incomes for long. When rent takes a larger share of pay, renewals slow and tenants double up or leave.
- Prices already moved. Sellers read the same data. In a county with strong rent growth, that growth is usually priced into what you pay, which leaves you needing even more growth to earn a return.
Counties that appear on this list two years running are rarer and more interesting than any single month's leaders.
How to use this list without overpaying
- Underwrite at 2% to 3% rent growth even here. Treat anything above that as upside you did not pay for.
- Check what is being built. Look up multifamily permits for the county. A large pipeline relative to the existing stock means the growth has an expiration date.
- Compare rent with income. The county market pages show rent alongside median income, which tells you how much room tenants have left.
- Buy on today's rent. Run the deal in the single family calculator or the multifamily calculator with current rent and see if it stands on its own.
For a full framework on weighing growth against yield, read cash flow vs appreciation markets and how to choose a rental market.
Rent growth and what you can charge
If you already own in one of these counties, the list is a prompt to check your own rents. A lease signed two years ago may be well under the market. Price the renewal from comparable listings, not from the county average, and weigh the increase against the cost of a vacant month. The method is in how much rent to charge.
How these rankings are built
- Source: the Zillow Observed Rent Index for counties, covering all home types, smoothed and seasonally adjusted. Zillow publishes it monthly.
- Comparison: the latest published month against the same month one year earlier. Counties without a reading in both months are left out.
- Counties whose index moved more than 30% in a year are left out. In a smoothed index, a swing that large is nearly always a data revision or a thin sample and not a real market move.
- The index tracks asking rents on listed units and is smoothed, so it lags turning points by a few months.
- Zillow revises recent months, so positions near the bottom of the table can change between updates.
For the opposite list, see where rents are falling.
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