52 Cheap Apartments for rent in Columbia, SC
September 2019 Columbia Rent Report
Welcome to the September 2019 Columbia Rent Report. Columbia rents increased over the past month. In this report, we'll evaluate trends in the Columbia rental market, including comparisons to cities throughout the state and nation.
September 2019 Columbia Rent Report
Welcome to the September 2019 Columbia Rent Report. Columbia rents increased over the past month. In this report, we'll evaluate trends in the Columbia rental market, including comparisons to cities throughout the state and nation.
Columbia rents increased moderately over the past month
Columbia rents have increased 0.3% over the past month, and have increased moderately by 2.0% in comparison to the same time last year. Currently, median rents in Columbia stand at $857 for a one-bedroom apartment and $990 for a two-bedroom. This is the eighth straight month that the city has seen rent increases after a decline in December of last year. Columbia's year-over-year rent growth leads the state average of 1.8%, as well as the national average of 1.5%.
Rents rising across cities in South Carolina
Throughout the past year, rent increases have been occurring not just in the city of Columbia, but across the entire state. Of the largest 10 cities that we have data for in South Carolina, all of them have seen prices rise. The state as a whole logged rent growth of 1.8% over the past year. Here's a look at how rents compare across some of the largest cities in the state.
- Looking throughout the state, Mount Pleasant is the most expensive of all South Carolina's major cities, with a median two-bedroom rent of $1,614; of the 10 largest South Carolina cities that we have data for, all have seen rents rise year-over-year, with Summerville experiencing the fastest growth (+3.4%).
- Greenville, Aiken, and Spartanburg have all experienced year-over-year growth above the state average (3.2%, 3.0%, and 2.6%, respectively).
Columbia rents more affordable than many large cities nationwide
As rents have increased moderately in Columbia, a few large cities nationwide have also seen rents grow modestly. Columbia is still more affordable than most large cities across the country.
- Columbia's median two-bedroom rent of $990 is below the national average of $1,191. Nationwide, rents have grown by 1.5% over the past year compared to the 2.0% increase in Columbia.
- While Columbia's rents rose moderately over the past year, many cities nationwide also saw increases, including Phoenix (+3.7%), Dallas (+2.0%), and New York (+1.7%).
- Renters will find more reasonable prices in Columbia than most large cities. For example, San Francisco has a median 2BR rent of $3,133, which is more than three times the price in Columbia.
For more information check out our national report. You can also access our full data for cities and counties across the U.S. at this link.
Methodology - Recent Updates:
Data from private listing sites, including our own, tends to skew toward luxury apartments, which introduces sample bias when estimates are calculated directly from these listings. To address these limitations, we’ve recently made major updates to our methodology, which we believe have greatly improved the accuracy and reliability of our estimates.
Read more about our new methodology below, or see a more detailed post here.
Methodology:
Apartment List is committed to making our rent estimates the best and most accurate available. To do this, we start with reliable median rent statistics from the Census Bureau, then extrapolate them forward to the current month using a growth rate calculated from our listing data. In doing so, we use a same-unit analysis similar to Case-Shiller’s approach, comparing only units that are available across both time periods to provide an accurate picture of rent growth in cities across the country.
Our approach corrects for the sample bias inherent in other private sources, producing results that are much closer to statistics published by the Census Bureau and HUD. Our methodology also allows us to construct a picture of rent growth over an extended period of time, with estimates that are updated each month.
Read more about our methodology here.
About Rent Reports:
Apartment List publishes monthly reports on rental trends for hundreds of cities across the U.S. We intend these reports to be a source of reliable information that help renters and policymakers make sound decisions, and we invest significant time and effort in gathering and analyzing rent data. Our work is covered regularly by journalists across the country.
We are continuously working to improve our methodology and data, with the goal of providing renters with the information that they need to make the best decisions.