With an average effective rent of $2,500 per bed per month, New York ranks as the most expensive state in the country for student housing, according to a report by RealPage. Students in Wyoming can find the most affordable student housing, with rents there averaging less than $550 per bed per month.
On average, privately owned student housing runs around $1,000 per month per bed across the core 175 universities tracked by RealPage. Along with New York, Massachusetts helped push the Northeast region into the more expensive category of student housing with rents averaging $2,160 per bed each month.
Other expensive markets for student housing include Washington, D.C., California, New Jersey, Washington state, Connecticut and Illinois, all of which posted average per-bed rents above $1,500 per month.
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States that have average effective rents per bed in line with the national norm of about $1,000 per month include Hawaii, Maryland, Arizona, Minnesota, Montana, Texas, Tennessee, New Hampshire, Georgia, Virginia, Alaska, Wisconsin and Delaware. Montana experienced the largest increase in student housing rents from Fall 2021 to Fall 2023 to $1,053 per bed each month, with the category shooting up by nearly 30%. RealPage noted this increase aligns with rent growth seen in conventional apartments across Montana.
Only four states posted student housing rents below $600 per bed per month – West Virginia, Kansas, North Dakota and Wyoming.
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Kristen Smithberg
Kristen Smithberg is a Colorado-based freelance writer who covers commercial real estate, insurance, benefits and retirement topics for BenefitsPRO and other industry publications.
