Overview of Findings
Apartment List has released Saint Louis’s results from the third annual Apartment List Renter Satisfaction Survey. This survey, which drew on responses from over 45,000 renters, provides insight on what states and cities must do to meet the needs of 111 million American renters nationwide.
"Saint Louis renters expressed general satisfaction with the city overall," according to Apartment List. "Interestingly, ratings for Saint Louis vary widely across categories such as affordability and weather."
Key findings in Saint Louis include the following:
- Saint Louis renters gave their city a C+ overall.
- The highest-rated categories for Saint Louis were affordability (A) and pet-friendliness (A-).
- The areas of concern to Saint Louis renters are weather, state and local taxes, social life and safety and low crime rate, which all received D grades.
- Millennial renters are unsatisfied with their city, giving it an overall rating of D.
- Saint Louis did relatively poorly compared to other cities in Missouri, including Kansas City (B) and Springfield (B-).
- Saint Louis did relatively poorly compared to similar cities nationwide, including Austin, TX (A-), Denver, CO (B+) and Seattle, WA (B+).
- The top rated cities nationwide for renter satisfaction include Scottsdale, AZ, Irvine, CA, Boulder, CO and Ann Arbor, MI. The lowest rated cities include Tallahassee, FL, Stockton, CA, Dayton, OH, Detroit, MI and Newark, NJ.
Renters say:
- "Love the trees and parks. Dislike the lack of diversity." – Anon.
- "Saint Louis is incredibly affordable and has a surprisingly great food scene. The city provides many free services and the population is small enough that you don’t have to wait in long lines." – Ally H.
- "I love the small town feel in a big city, but I hate the crime rate." – Taylor G.
- "I love the attention the city gives to décor and landscaping. But traffic is bad and it’s not very pedestrian-friendly." – Megan D.
For more information on the survey methodology and findings or to speak to one of our researchers, please contact our team at rentonomics@apartmentlist.com.
