Been looking at rental market data and realized how wild the differences are across the country. Like, if you're paying rent in Hawaii you're looking at over $2,400 a month on average, while someone in North Dakota is chilling at under $900. That's a massive gap.

The expensive states make sense when you think about it—Hawaii's got that island premium since everything ships in, plus their cost of living is just brutal. California's similar but at least they're finally building more apartments now. D.C., New Jersey, Massachusetts, all coastal areas basically. When you look at average rent by state, the pattern is pretty clear: coasts are pricey, middle of the country is way more affordable.

What's interesting is the shift happening. Back in 2021-2022 everything was jumping because remote workers flooded warm states. But by August 2023, that trend was already reversing. Average rent by state actually started declining for the first time in years—72 out of 100 metro areas got cheaper. Places like Vegas, Austin, Atlanta seeing real drops. Meanwhile the Midwest and New England are heating up, which is wild because those used to be the cheap zones.

North Dakota and Iowa used to be absolute steals, but even those are climbing now—North Dakota up like 11% year-over-year. Still way below national average though. If you're flexible on location and don't mind winters, average rent by state in the Midwest is still your best bet. But yeah, the rental market's normalizing after that crazy pandemic spike. Supply's finally catching up in some places.