The 50 Most Affordable U.S. Cities to Rent in 2026
The cheapest city in America to rent a one-bedroom is Erie, Pennsylvania, at $583 a month. That is 55% below the national median, and in Canadian dollars it works out to about C$816. A one-bedroom in Toronto averaged C$1,761 in CMHC’s 2025 rental market survey.
That gap is the reason this ranking is worth keeping current. It is also the reason it is worth building carefully, because the most affordable-looking cities in the raw data are not the most affordable cities in the country. They are the ones where the survey happened to interview very few renters.
This is our 2026 edition, rebuilt from scratch. The numbers come from the U.S. Census Bureau rather than from a listings aggregator, every city carries a margin of error we checked before ranking it, and every figure is dated. We have also converted the whole list into Canadian dollars and set it beside what the same apartment costs in ten Canadian cities, which is the comparison a reader here actually wants and the one nobody else runs.
How we ranked them
The ranking metric is the median gross rent for a one-bedroom unit, from the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey, 2024 one-year estimates, table B25031. Gross rent means the rent plus any utilities the tenant pays, so it is closer to a real monthly cost than a headline rent figure. The 2024 file is the most recent annual vintage published; the 2025 one-year estimates are not out yet.
Three choices shape the list, and they are worth stating plainly.
The city cut-off is 65,000 people. That is not an arbitrary threshold. The Census Bureau publishes one-year estimates only for places of 65,000 or more, so the universe of this ranking is every U.S. city large enough to be measured annually. There are 650 of them with a usable rent and income figure.
Unreliable estimates were removed before ranking. This matters more than anything else on the page. Census publishes a margin of error beside every estimate, and for one-bedroom rent in smaller cities that margin can swallow the number whole. Lehigh Acres, Florida reports a median one-bedroom rent of $374, which would have topped this list by a wide margin. Its margin of error is plus or minus $734. The survey is telling you, in the same breath, that it does not know. We converted each margin of error into a coefficient of variation and dropped anything above 15%, the conventional line for an estimate you can lean on. That filter removed Lehigh Acres, Apple Valley and Brentwood in California, Camden in New Jersey, and Brockton and Springfield in Massachusetts. Brentwood is the clearest tell: a reported $581 one-bedroom in a city with a median household income of $144,110.
Puerto Rico is excluded. Four places there would otherwise rank in the top ten. They are not U.S. states and the comparison is a different one.
For each city we also pulled two cross-checks. The first is the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Fair Market Rent for a one-bedroom for fiscal 2027, which takes effect on October 1, 2026. It is a 40th-percentile figure for the whole metro area rather than the city, so it runs higher, but it is a genuine one-bedroom number set by a federal agency for the year ahead, and it moves in step with the ranking. The second is Zillow’s observed rent index through August 2026, which we use only for the direction rents moved over the past year. We do not quote its level, and the reason is explained further down, because it is the single most common way this kind of article goes wrong.
The 10 cheapest U.S. cities to rent a one-bedroom
10. Jonesboro, Arkansas: $735 a month
Jonesboro opens the list at $735 a month, 44% below the national median. It is a university town in the northeast corner of Arkansas, home to Arkansas State University, and the fifth-largest city in the state at 82,386 people.
Its rent-to-income ratio, 17.1%, is the second-highest of the top ten. That is not because rent is high. It is because the median household income of $51,672 is the fourth-lowest in this group. Cheap rent and modest pay tend to travel together, and a ranking built purely on the price of a lease will keep surfacing places where the pay is proportionally lower too. It is the reason we publish the income column beside the rent one rather than underneath it.
| Jonesboro at a glance | Value |
|---|---|
| Median one-bedroom gross rent, 2024 | $735 (about C$1,029) |
| Margin of error | plus or minus $54 |
| HUD one-bedroom standard, fiscal 2027 | $895 |
| Median household income, 2024 | $51,672 |
| Rent as share of median income | 17.1% |
| Population, 2024 | 82,386 |
| Asking rents, year to August 2026 | +2.7% |
9. Topeka, Kansas: $732 a month
Topeka is the capital of Kansas, which means a large share of the payroll is state government and does not move with the business cycle. At $732 a month for a one-bedroom against a median household income of $61,030, the rent burden works out to 14.4%.
Kansas places two cities in the top thirty of this ranking and Topeka is the cheaper of the pair. Wichita, three times its size, sits at 28th on $823.
| Topeka at a glance | Value |
|---|---|
| Median one-bedroom gross rent, 2024 | $732 (about C$1,025) |
| Margin of error | plus or minus $50 |
| HUD one-bedroom standard, fiscal 2027 | $913 |
| Median household income, 2024 | $61,030 |
| Rent as share of median income | 14.4% |
| Population, 2024 | 125,475 |
| Asking rents, year to August 2026 | +4.8% |
8. Sioux City, Iowa: $728 a month
Sioux City has the best rent-to-income ratio of the entire top ten. A one-bedroom runs $728 a month against a median household income of $74,972, the highest income of any city in the top ten, which puts housing at 11.7% of the median household’s gross pay. For comparison, the widely used affordability threshold is 30%.
The income figure is the interesting one. Sioux City sits at the corner of Iowa, Nebraska and South Dakota on the Missouri River, and its economy leans on food processing and freight rather than on a single large employer. That combination of ordinary wages and genuinely low rent is rarer in this data than cheap rent on its own.
| Sioux City at a glance | Value |
|---|---|
| Median one-bedroom gross rent, 2024 | $728 (about C$1,019) |
| Margin of error | plus or minus $103 |
| HUD one-bedroom standard, fiscal 2027 | $965 |
| Median household income, 2024 | $74,972 |
| Rent as share of median income | 11.7% |
| Population, 2024 | 87,526 |
| Asking rents, year to August 2026 | +3.5% |
7. Canton, Ohio: $709 a month
Canton, in northeast Ohio, is the only city in the top ten where the estimate carries a coefficient of variation in double digits, at 13%. That is still inside the reliability threshold, but it is the widest margin on this part of the list and worth flagging rather than burying.
At $709 against a median household income of $46,320, the lowest in the top ten, Canton carries the heaviest rent burden of this group at 18.4%. Ohio dominates this ranking with five cities in the top fifty, and Canton is the third of them.
| Canton at a glance | Value |
|---|---|
| Median one-bedroom gross rent, 2024 | $709 (about C$993) |
| Margin of error | plus or minus $154 |
| HUD one-bedroom standard, fiscal 2027 | $827 |
| Median household income, 2024 | $46,320 |
| Rent as share of median income | 18.4% |
| Population, 2024 | 69,209 |
| Asking rents, year to August 2026 | +3.1% |
6. McAllen, Texas: $706 a month
McAllen is the only city in the top six outside the Rust Belt and the upper Midwest. It sits on the Rio Grande in the Rio Grande Valley, a few kilometres from the Mexican border, and it is one of the busiest land-trade corridors in North America.
A one-bedroom costs $706 a month, 46% below the national median, and HUD’s one-bedroom standard for the metro next year is $806, the joint-lowest of the top ten alongside Cedar Rapids. Zillow’s index has McAllen asking rents up 1.0% over the year to August 2026, the second-smallest increase of any city in the fifty.
| McAllen at a glance | Value |
|---|---|
| Median one-bedroom gross rent, 2024 | $706 (about C$989) |
| Margin of error | plus or minus $35 |
| HUD one-bedroom standard, fiscal 2027 | $806 |
| Median household income, 2024 | $60,907 |
| Rent as share of median income | 13.9% |
| Population, 2024 | 148,784 |
| Asking rents, year to August 2026 | +1.0% |
5. Cedar Rapids, Iowa: $701 a month
Cedar Rapids is the second-largest city in Iowa and the one entry in the top ten where the direction of travel should give a mover pause. Rent is $701, which is 46% below the national median, and the rent burden is 12.0%, second-best in this group.
But asking rents in Cedar Rapids rose 14.6% in the year to August 2026 on Zillow’s index, the second-fastest of any city in the fifty, against a median of 3.5%. The Census figure describes what people already living there pay on leases signed over several years. The Zillow figure describes what is being asked now. When those two diverge this sharply, the Census number is the weaker guide to what a newcomer would sign.
| Cedar Rapids at a glance | Value |
|---|---|
| Median one-bedroom gross rent, 2024 | $701 (about C$982) |
| Margin of error | plus or minus $74 |
| HUD one-bedroom standard, fiscal 2027 | $806 |
| Median household income, 2024 | $69,917 |
| Rent as share of median income | 12.0% |
| Population, 2024 | 137,917 |
| Asking rents, year to August 2026 | +14.6% |
4. Toledo, Ohio: $675 a month
Toledo is the largest city in the top ten, with 265,651 people, and the fourth-largest in Ohio. It sits where the Maumee River meets Lake Erie, and it is the one city on this list with real continuity: Toledo was second on the version of this ranking we published in 2023, and it is fourth now.
At $675 a month it is 48% below the national median. Its median household income of $50,562 puts the rent burden at 16.0%. HUD will price a one-bedroom in the Toledo metro at $875 for fiscal 2027.
| Toledo at a glance | Value |
|---|---|
| Median one-bedroom gross rent, 2024 | $675 (about C$945) |
| Margin of error | plus or minus $37 |
| HUD one-bedroom standard, fiscal 2027 | $875 |
| Median household income, 2024 | $50,562 |
| Rent as share of median income | 16.0% |
| Population, 2024 | 265,651 |
| Asking rents, year to August 2026 | +5.7% |
3. Lorain, Ohio: $668 a month
Lorain sits on Lake Erie about 50 kilometres west of Cleveland, and it is the smallest city in the top four at 65,765 people, barely above the threshold at which the Census Bureau will publish annual estimates for it at all.
It is also the clearest case on the list of a city being measured inside a much larger housing market. Lorain’s own median one-bedroom rent is $668, but HUD’s fiscal 2027 one-bedroom standard for Lorain County is $1,050, the highest of the top ten, because the county is part of the Cleveland metro area. A tenant already in a Lorain apartment and a tenant shopping across the county line are looking at very different numbers.
| Lorain at a glance | Value |
|---|---|
| Median one-bedroom gross rent, 2024 | $668 (about C$935) |
| Margin of error | plus or minus $56 |
| HUD one-bedroom standard, fiscal 2027 | $1,050 |
| Median household income, 2024 | $52,749 |
| Rent as share of median income | 15.2% |
| Population, 2024 | 65,765 |
| Asking rents, year to August 2026 | +3.9% |
2. Waterloo, Iowa: $627 a month
Waterloo, on the Cedar River in northeast Iowa, is second at $627 a month. It is 52% below the national median, and at a median household income of $61,737 the rent burden is 12.2%.
Iowa is the state that shows up best in this ranking on the combined measure. It places four cities in the top fifty, and three of those (Waterloo, Cedar Rapids and Sioux City) are in the top eight with rent burdens of 12.2%, 12.0% and 11.7%. No other state puts three cities under 13%.
| Waterloo at a glance | Value |
|---|---|
| Median one-bedroom gross rent, 2024 | $627 (about C$878) |
| Margin of error | plus or minus $32 |
| HUD one-bedroom standard, fiscal 2027 | $838 |
| Median household income, 2024 | $61,737 |
| Rent as share of median income | 12.2% |
| Population, 2024 | 67,471 |
| Asking rents, year to August 2026 | +5.1% |
1. Erie, Pennsylvania: $583 a month
Erie is the cheapest city in the United States to rent a one-bedroom, at $583 a month. That is 55% below the national median of $1,301 and $44 a month less than Waterloo behind it. It is a city of 92,936 on the Pennsylvania shore of Lake Erie.
The estimate is solid: a margin of error of plus or minus $76 on $583, a coefficient of variation of 8%. Asking rents in the city rose 1.3% in the year to August 2026, among the three slowest of the fifty, so the figure is not about to be overtaken by a hot market.
What keeps Erie honest rather than remarkable is the income line. Median household income is $47,733, the second-lowest in the top ten, so even the cheapest rent in the country still takes 14.7% of the median household’s gross pay. HUD will set its one-bedroom standard for Erie County at $851 for fiscal 2027, which is 46% above the Census median and a better guide to what a newcomer would be quoted.
| Erie at a glance | Value |
|---|---|
| Median one-bedroom gross rent, 2024 | $583 (about C$816) |
| Margin of error | plus or minus $76 |
| HUD one-bedroom standard, fiscal 2027 | $851 |
| Median household income, 2024 | $47,733 |
| Rent as share of median income | 14.7% |
| Population, 2024 | 92,936 |
| Asking rents, year to August 2026 | +1.3% |
What the same apartment costs in Canada
Converting the list at the Bank of Canada’s September 18, 2026 daily average of C$1.4002 per U.S. dollar puts the whole ranking on a scale a Canadian reader can actually use. The cheapest one-bedroom in the United States comes to about C$816 a month. The most expensive Canadian market in the comparison, Vancouver, averaged C$1,806.
The Canadian figures come from CMHC’s Rental Market Survey for 2025, which is the authoritative count of what apartments actually rent for in this country. They are published as Statistics Canada table 34-10-0133.
| Canadian city | Average one-bedroom, 2025 | 2024 | 2023 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Montréal | C$1,131 | C$1,051 | C$960 |
| Windsor | C$1,192 | C$1,116 | C$1,055 |
| Winnipeg | C$1,232 | C$1,179 | C$1,102 |
| Edmonton | C$1,301 | C$1,237 | C$1,134 |
| London | C$1,371 | C$1,299 | C$1,186 |
| Halifax | C$1,540 | C$1,403 | C$1,323 |
| Ottawa-Gatineau | C$1,543 | C$1,483 | C$1,351 |
| Calgary | C$1,582 | C$1,585 | C$1,464 |
| Toronto | C$1,761 | C$1,715 | C$1,691 |
| Vancouver | C$1,806 | C$1,769 | C$1,696 |
Three Canadian cities fall inside the range this list covers. Against the 569 U.S. cities that passed the reliability screen, Montréal would place about 27th, Windsor about 37th and Winnipeg about 47th. Edmonton is the first Canadian city that falls outside the fifty, at roughly 76th. Toronto would come in around 215th and Vancouver around 222nd.
So the useful distinction is not Canada against the United States. It is that Canada has a handful of markets priced like the cheap American Midwest, and two that are not close to it.
Windsor and Detroit charge almost exactly the same rent
The two cities face each other across the Detroit River, and they are the closest thing North America has to a controlled experiment in housing costs.
Detroit is 36th on this list at $850 a month, which converts to about C$1,190. Windsor’s CMHC average for a one-bedroom in 2025 was C$1,192. The difference is roughly C$2 a month across an international border.
That is a genuine finding and it deserves one caveat stated plainly. The Census figure is a median of gross rent for 2024 and includes tenant-paid utilities. CMHC reports an average of rent as charged, from its 2025 survey. Two different agencies, two different measures, two different years. Close is a real result. Identical is not a claim these two series can carry, and anyone telling you the two cities are priced to the dollar is reading more into the arithmetic than it holds.
The full list: 50 most affordable U.S. cities to rent
All figures are for 2024 unless the column says otherwise. The HUD column is a metro-wide standard for fiscal 2027 rather than a city figure, which is why it runs higher, and why Cicero and Joliet carry the Chicago metro number rather than one of their own.
| # | City | State | Median 1-bedroom rent | In Canadian dollars | HUD 2027 1-bedroom standard | Median household income | Rent as share of income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Erie | Pennsylvania | $583 | C$816 | $851 | $47,733 | 14.7% |
| 2 | Waterloo | Iowa | $627 | C$878 | $838 | $61,737 | 12.2% |
| 3 | Lorain | Ohio | $668 | C$935 | $1,050 | $52,749 | 15.2% |
| 4 | Toledo | Ohio | $675 | C$945 | $875 | $50,562 | 16.0% |
| 5 | Cedar Rapids | Iowa | $701 | C$982 | $806 | $69,917 | 12.0% |
| 6 | McAllen | Texas | $706 | C$989 | $806 | $60,907 | 13.9% |
| 7 | Canton | Ohio | $709 | C$993 | $827 | $46,320 | 18.4% |
| 8 | Sioux City | Iowa | $728 | C$1,019 | $965 | $74,972 | 11.7% |
| 9 | Topeka | Kansas | $732 | C$1,025 | $913 | $61,030 | 14.4% |
| 10 | Jonesboro | Arkansas | $735 | C$1,029 | $895 | $51,672 | 17.1% |
| 11 | Cleveland | Ohio | $740 | C$1,036 | $1,050 | $43,383 | 20.5% |
| 12 | Akron | Ohio | $758 | C$1,061 | $952 | $48,521 | 18.7% |
| 13 | Fort Smith | Arkansas | $761 | C$1,066 | $748 | $60,306 | 15.1% |
| 14 | Bismarck | North Dakota | $770 | C$1,078 | $927 | $73,877 | 12.5% |
| 15 | Dothan | Alabama | $770 | C$1,078 | $768 | $55,846 | 16.5% |
| 16 | Rockford | Illinois | $771 | C$1,080 | $896 | $52,564 | 17.6% |
| 17 | Springfield | Missouri | $772 | C$1,081 | $913 | $54,414 | 17.0% |
| 18 | Wichita Falls | Texas | $775 | C$1,085 | $949 | $63,835 | 14.6% |
| 19 | Las Cruces | New Mexico | $776 | C$1,087 | $975 | $58,871 | 15.8% |
| 20 | Bloomington | Illinois | $786 | C$1,101 | $996 | $78,106 | 12.1% |
| 21 | Peoria | Illinois | $789 | C$1,105 | $961 | $65,078 | 14.5% |
| 22 | Albany | Georgia | $797 | C$1,116 | $972 | $47,676 | 20.1% |
| 23 | Yuma | Arizona | $798 | C$1,117 | $948 | $71,828 | 13.3% |
| 24 | Lawton | Oklahoma | $800 | C$1,120 | $763 | $55,506 | 17.3% |
| 25 | Springfield | Illinois | $805 | C$1,127 | $977 | $72,889 | 13.3% |
| 26 | Janesville | Wisconsin | $806 | C$1,129 | $998 | $66,853 | 14.5% |
| 27 | Green Bay | Wisconsin | $817 | C$1,144 | $1,028 | $65,820 | 14.9% |
| 28 | Wichita | Kansas | $823 | C$1,152 | $823 | $65,855 | 15.0% |
| 29 | Cicero | Illinois | $826 | C$1,157 | $1,780 (Chicago metro) | $65,523 | 15.1% |
| 30 | Muncie | Indiana | $831 | C$1,164 | $913 | $41,417 | 24.1% |
| 31 | Bowling Green | Kentucky | $837 | C$1,172 | $1,020 | $53,609 | 18.7% |
| 32 | Conway | Arkansas | $839 | C$1,175 | $969 | $65,896 | 15.3% |
| 33 | New Bedford | Massachusetts | $846 | C$1,185 | $1,305 | $57,240 | 17.7% |
| 34 | Greenville | North Carolina | $848 | C$1,187 | $967 | $52,016 | 19.6% |
| 35 | San Angelo | Texas | $849 | C$1,189 | $1,032 | $67,498 | 15.1% |
| 36 | Detroit | Michigan | $850 | C$1,190 | $1,167 | $39,209 | 26.0% |
| 37 | Roanoke | Virginia | $852 | C$1,193 | $1,250 | $60,456 | 16.9% |
| 38 | Joliet | Illinois | $854 | C$1,196 | $1,780 (Chicago metro) | $103,163 | 9.9% |
| 39 | Laredo | Texas | $857 | C$1,200 | $955 | $61,519 | 16.7% |
| 40 | Shreveport | Louisiana | $859 | C$1,203 | $926 | $50,291 | 20.5% |
| 41 | Iowa City | Iowa | $862 | C$1,207 | $1,002 | $60,650 | 17.1% |
| 42 | Reading | Pennsylvania | $863 | C$1,208 | $1,114 | $40,081 | 25.8% |
| 43 | Yakima | Washington | $866 | C$1,213 | $1,004 | $63,781 | 16.3% |
| 44 | Evansville | Indiana | $867 | C$1,214 | $872 | $52,094 | 20.0% |
| 45 | South Bend | Indiana | $873 | C$1,222 | n/a | $53,006 | 19.8% |
| 46 | Oshkosh | Wisconsin | $875 | C$1,225 | $936 | $60,711 | 17.3% |
| 47 | El Paso | Texas | $881 | C$1,234 | $969 | $59,932 | 17.6% |
| 48 | Lake Charles | Louisiana | $881 | C$1,234 | $941 | $52,738 | 20.0% |
| 49 | Duluth | Minnesota | $883 | C$1,236 | n/a | $69,255 | 15.3% |
| 50 | Springdale | Arkansas | $883 | C$1,236 | $1,056 | $72,997 | 14.5% |
What happened to the list we published in 2023
This page has existed since July 2023, and the version it replaces ranked ten cities on figures from a commercial data provider. Rebuilding it on Census data lets us check our own work, which is a comparison no aggregator can run on itself.
Only three of the ten cities we listed in 2023 are still in the top fifty.
| City | What this page said in 2023 | Census 2024 figure | Rank today |
|---|---|---|---|
| Laredo, Texas | $604 | $857 | 39 |
| Toledo, Ohio | $660 | $675 | 4 |
| Wichita, Kansas | $690 | $823 | 28 |
| Lubbock, Texas | $695 | $1,013 | 113 |
| Lincoln, Nebraska | $775 | $1,020 | 117 |
| Corpus Christi, Texas | $826 | $1,090 | 147 |
| Cleveland, Ohio | $825 | $740 | 11 |
| Little Rock, Arkansas | $850 | $994 | 105 |
| El Paso, Texas | $800 | $881 | 47 |
| Fort Wayne, Indiana | $800 | $894 | 57 |
The two columns come from different sources with different methods, so read the change as direction rather than as a precise rent increase. The rank column is the reliable part, because it is computed inside a single consistent dataset.
The shape of it is clear enough. Texas has fallen out. Laredo, which led the 2023 list, is now 39th. Corpus Christi has dropped to 147th and Lubbock to 113th. What replaced them is the Rust Belt and the upper Midwest: Ohio, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana and Wisconsin supply 21 of the current fifty between them, against Texas’s five.
The number that is not on this page, and why
There is a second rent figure for every one of these cities, and most rankings of this kind quote it without saying which one they are using. We are not going to, and the reason is worth two minutes.
Zillow’s observed rent index puts Erie at about $1,103 a month in August 2026, against the $583 on this page. Toledo comes out at $1,128 against $675. Across the fifty cities, the index runs roughly 60% above the Census one-bedroom median.
Neither number is wrong. They measure different things, and the gap has two causes.
The first is unit mix. The Census figure is specifically a one-bedroom. The Zillow index covers rentals of all sizes, including three-bedroom houses, which in small Midwestern cities make up a large share of what is listed. Nationally, the Census puts a three-bedroom at $1,677 against $1,301 for a one-bedroom, so a blended index sits well above a one-bedroom median before anything else is considered.
The second is tenure. Census surveys people who already live in their apartment, on leases signed across several years. An asking-rent index measures what is being advertised this month. Sitting tenants pay less than new arrivals in almost every market.
So the honest reading of this page is: the ranking column tells you what living in these cities costs the people who live there, which is the right measure of a city’s cost structure. If you are the one moving, budget closer to the HUD column, and check the final column of each city panel, because a market where asking rents rose 14.6% over the past year, as Cedar Rapids did, will not feel like its Census median for long.
What this is worth to a Canadian reader
Almost nobody reading this is about to move to Erie. Working in the United States requires status that a cheap lease does not confer, and the cost of living is only one line of that decision.
The list is still useful, in two ways.
The first is as a benchmark. Canadian rent debates run on comparisons to Toronto and Vancouver, and both are expensive by any standard. Setting them against a properly sourced American list shows something more specific than “rent is high here”: Montréal at C$1,131 would sit about 27th among the 569 U.S. cities measured, inside the cheapest 5%, while Toronto at C$1,761 lands around 215th. The spread within Canada is nearly as wide as the spread we are measuring in the United States, and if you are weighing a move within Canada rather than out of it, the same arithmetic in our rent versus buy analysis is the one that decides it.
The second is as a reminder of what rent is, from the other side of the ledger. A rent cheque is somebody’s income. Canadians cannot easily buy a house in Toledo, but owning the landlords is a different matter, and residential real estate investment trusts are the usual route: they trade on the TSX like any other security and distribute rental income to unitholders. If that is unfamiliar ground, how to buy your first stock covers the mechanics, and our guide to ETFs covers the pooled version of the same idea.
One tax point matters if you go looking for the American version of that trade, and it is the sort of detail that decides the outcome on an income-producing holding. Under the Canada-U.S. tax treaty, U.S. dividends paid into an RRSP escape the 15% U.S. withholding tax. The same dividends paid into a TFSA are withheld at source, and that money cannot be recovered. Distributions from U.S. real estate investment trusts have their own treatment again, which is not the same as ordinary dividends, so check the specific holding rather than assuming. How investment income is taxed sets out the general framework.
If you are staying put and the question is whether you can afford to stop renting, how much mortgage you can afford in Canada runs the numbers at current rates, and the First Home Savings Account is the account most first-time buyers should fill before anything else.
Related rankings
- The most expensive U.S. cities to rent and live in is the other end of this same dataset.
- The hardest U.S. cities to afford rent ranks on rent against local income rather than on rent alone, which is the measure that matters most if you are earning locally rather than arriving with savings.
- The U.S. companies with the most employees covers who actually provides the paycheques in these local economies.
Sources and dates
- Rent, income and population: U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 2024 one-year estimates, tables B25031, B19013 and B01003, accessed September 19, 2026. Rent figures are median gross rent for one-bedroom units.
- Reliability screening: Census-published margins of error at 90% confidence, converted to coefficients of variation. Cities above 15% were excluded.
- Fair Market Rents: U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, fiscal year 2027 schedule, effective October 1, 2026.
- Year-over-year asking rent change: Zillow Observed Rent Index, city file, August 2026 against August 2025.
- Canadian rents: Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation Rental Market Survey, average rent for one-bedroom units in apartment structures of three units and over, via Statistics Canada table 34-10-0133.
- Exchange rate: Bank of Canada daily average, September 18, 2026, C$1.4002 per U.S. dollar.
Disclaimer: The content on bestcanadianstocks.ca is for informational and entertainment purposes only and does not constitute financial advice. Past performance is not indicative of future results. Always consult a qualified financial advisor before making investment decisions. U.S. rent, income and population from the U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 2024 one-year estimates (tables B25031, B19013, B01003), accessed September 19, 2026; cities screened on Census-published margins of error. One-bedroom Fair Market Rents from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development fiscal 2027 schedule, effective October 1, 2026. Year-over-year asking rent change from the Zillow Observed Rent Index, August 2026. Canadian rents from the CMHC Rental Market Survey 2025 via Statistics Canada table 34-10-0133. Exchange rate from the Bank of Canada daily average for September 18, 2026.
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