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Everyone Wants to Move to This Southern City (It’s Super Renter-Friendly!)

Written by

Kylie McConvilleEditor-in-Chief at Apartment Therapy
Kylie McConvilleEditor-in-Chief at Apartment Therapy
I'm the Editor-in-Chief of Apartment Therapy, and I work with our editors to create content that truly helps our readers create stylish, functional, and creative lives at home. Before I joined this A+ team, I was the Vice President of Editorial Growth at Bustle Digital Group, Editor-in-Chief of Elite Daily, and founding editor of Romper.
published Jul 13, 2024
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Downtown Charleston on a bright sunny day.
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Credit: Daniela Duncan / Getty Images

Everything is coming up South Carolina. For the second year in a row, renters named Charleston, South Carolina as the best city for renters in 2024, according to a report from RentCafe. The report, released on July 8, 2024, looked at 20 metrics across 150 U.S. cities in three overarching categories (Cost of Living and Housing, Local Economy, and Quality of Life) to identify the ideal city in the U.S.

This report dropped just as two other major reports revealed that South Carolina is a highly coveted place to live. For the 12th year in a row, a group of Travel + Leisure readers named Charleston the best city in the U.S. overall. Plus, in another separate report published in June by ConsumerAffairs.com, South Carolina ranked second in states that people most wanted to move to, bested only by North Carolina.

So what does Charleston seem to have that everyone wants? RentCafe compiled metrics like apartment quality, traffic, cost of living, share of new apartments, market competitiveness, job growth, apartments in top locations, using public transport or walking, and more to pick a winner, and renters picked Charleston as the top city out of 50.

According to the RentCafe report, Charleston ranked second for its strong local economy and seventh for affordability. With a cost of living that falls 1.6% below the national average, making it more affordable for renters than elsewhere in the country, RentCafe reports that the city is “teeming with career opportunities from major employers such as Boeing, Benefitfocus, Blackbaud, and Boomtown.” 

Coupled with a 46.9% renter income growth percentage, a 4.1% job growth percentage, and a low 3.7% unemployment rate, the city has earned the nickname of “Silicon Harbor.”

RentCafe also reported that with a population size of 149,960, Charleston renters can look forward to an average 970-square-foot apartment size and 32.5% share of new apartments, according to the data.

To put it in perspective, Manhattan boasts more than 1.4 million people and a cost of living increase that is 126.5% above the national average, as well as an average square footage of 748 square feet. A competitive rental market has resulted in a small number of available apartments, with 4.7% for renters to choose from, compared to Charleston’s nearly 8x more apartment availability.

RentCafe’s report named Atlanta, GA; Sarasota, FL; McKinney, TX; and Scottsdale, AZ as second, third, fourth and fifth best cities for renters in 2024, and the full report on the best cities for renters can be found online. But given all the buzz around Charleston, it really seems like the city has something special.