Rent vs. Buy by State: Median Rent vs. the Payment on the Median Home

What the numbers show

• Owning costs more than renting at the median, everywhere. The median home ($371,100) with 20% down ($74,220) means a $296,880 loan. At 7.24% the principal and interest is $2,023 and property tax adds $279, for $2,302 a month against median rent of $1,557. In none of the 51 places is the payment on the median home at or below the median rent. The five places where the two are closest are Mississippi (1.12x), West Virginia (1.13x), Louisiana (1.24x), Alabama (1.27x), and Arkansas (1.27x). The five with the widest gap are Hawaii (2.55x), California (2.16x), Montana (2.13x), District of Columbia (2.07x), and Massachusetts (2.01x).
• Counting principal as savings does not close the gap. In the first year of the U.S. loan, $2,879 of the payments ($240 a month) goes to principal, which you keep as equity. Remove it and the cost of owning is $2,062 a month, still 1.32x the median rent. Only 1 of 51 places come in at or below 1.00x on that basis (Mississippi).
• Rates would have to fall about 4.1 points for the U.S. to break even. The payment on the median home equals the median rent at 3.17%. At a 3.00% rate, 23 of 51 places would have a payment at or below the rent. 3 places (New Jersey, California, and Hawaii) would still be above the rent with a 0% mortgage. In New Jersey, repaying the loan principal alone takes $1,180 a month and property tax adds $804, against a $1,885 median rent.
• Renters carry the heavier income burden, and buying would add to it. The median renter household earns $57,048 and pays 32.8% of it in gross rent; 35 of 51 places are above 30%, led by Florida at 37.1% (North Dakota is lowest at 22.7%). Buying the median home would take 48.4% of that renter income, and more than half of it in 20 of 51 places. The median owner household ($103,251) would spend 26.8%.
• The down payment is the other hurdle. Twenty percent down on the median home is $74,220, which equals 4.0 years of median rent. It ranges from 3.1 years in Mississippi to 7.5 in Hawaii. The price-to-rent ratio, home value divided by a year of rent, runs from 15.5 in Mississippi to 37.4 in Hawaii (19.9 nationally).
• Rent and property tax move states in different directions. Florida has the highest rent burden of any state (37.1% of renter income) yet sits at 1.30x on payment against rent, so both options are heavy there. New Jersey has the highest property tax in the data ($9,648 a year, or $804 a month), which lifts its ratio to 1.96x even though its median home ($530,800) is far cheaper than California’s ($770,700). Mississippi sits at the other end: a $192,700 median home and a $1,033 median rent leave a $122 monthly premium.

How the rate changes the picture

The mortgage rate is the one input that can change next week, so here is the same calculation at six rates. Each row recomputes all 51 places. The year-earlier rate is 6.17%.

How we calculated it

Five Census Bureau tables supply the inputs for each state. We apply one fixed-rate loan formula to all of them and compare the result with the median rent.

Payment = P&I + (median property tax ÷ 12), where P&I = L × r ÷ (1 − (1 + r)⁻ⁿ)

• L is the loan: median home value (ACS table B25077) less a 20% down payment. r is the monthly rate: 7.24% ÷ 12 = 0.6033%. n is 360 monthly payments.
• Property tax is the median real estate tax paid by owner-occupied homes (B25103), divided by 12. These are the same home value and tax inputs as our mortgage affordability report.
• Rent is median gross rent (B25064), contract rent plus tenant-paid utilities. Payment ÷ rent is the payment divided by that figure.
• Break-even rate is the mortgage rate at which the payment equals the median rent, found by bisection on the formula above. It is reported as “None” when the payment is above the rent even at a 0% rate.
• Interest plus tax removes the principal repaid in the first 12 payments from the payment, as a view of cost that excludes equity.
• Income shares use median household income by tenure (B25119): rent ÷ renter income, payment ÷ owner income, and payment ÷ renter income, each on a monthly basis.
• Down payment in years of rent is 20% of the median home value divided by 12 months of median rent.

Worked example, United States: $371,100 × 80% = $296,880. At 7.24% over 360 months the principal and interest is $2,023. Property tax of $3,344 a year adds $279, for $2,302 a month. Median gross rent is $1,557, so the payment is 1.48x the rent and the monthly premium is $745. You can run the same inputs in our mortgage payment calculator or compare the two options with your own numbers in the rent vs buy calculator.

What this report does not capture

• The median home is a bigger home than the median rental. In the 2025 ACS, 80.6% of owner-occupied homes have three or more bedrooms, against 29.3% of renter-occupied homes. Part of the premium for owning pays for more space, and a like-for-like comparison would show a smaller gap than the table does.
• Gross rent includes utilities; the payment does not. The rent figure adds tenant-paid utilities, while the payment leaves out utilities, homeowners insurance, HOA dues, and maintenance that an owner pays. Those omissions make owning look cheaper than it is, so the real gap is wider.
• Equity, appreciation, and taxes are not modeled. Principal repaid is shown separately (the interest-plus-tax view). Price changes, transaction costs of buying and selling, and the effect of mortgage interest and property tax on an income tax return depend on your situation and are left out. Over a long stay they can outweigh a monthly premium; the rent vs buy guide covers that math.
• Values are from 2025; the rate is from October 29, 2026. Home values and rents have moved since the survey year. The result is the cost of financing a 2025 median home at today’s rate. The companion affordability report uses the October 22 rate of 7.32%, so its payments differ slightly from the ones here. The 2026 estimates are expected in fall 2027, and we will update both reports after that release.
• Medians describe different households and homes. Median value is an owner’s estimate for all owner-occupied homes, including ones bought years ago. Median rent covers all renters, including long-term tenants. A first-time buyer usually buys below the median, and a new renter may pay above it. Property tax reflects current owners; where tax is reassessed at sale, a new buyer’s bill is typically higher.
• Income shares compare medians, not matched households. The share of income is the median rent divided by the median renter income, not the median of each household’s own ratio. It is a standard summary but will not match other published rent-burden figures exactly.
• ACS figures are estimates with margins of error. The Census Bureau publishes 90% margins for every number. We combine the margins of value, tax, and rent into a conservative range for each ratio (hover a bar in the table). Most ranges are within about 0.1x of the estimate, but they are wider for Wyoming (1.80x to 2.11x), Hawaii (2.42x to 2.68x), District of Columbia (1.95x to 2.20x), and Vermont (1.69x to 1.93x). Treat states a tenth of a point apart as ties.
• The rate is a national average. Freddie Mac’s survey covers conforming loans for well-qualified borrowers with 20% down. Your rate depends on credit, loan type, and lender.