National median rents for zero- to two-bedroom units in the 50 largest U.S. metros fell 1% year over year to $1,693 in November as sustained rent softening persists through the end of 2025.
A new study from Realtor.com described the softening trend as “a notable, though still limited, improvement in rental affordability,” particularly for the lowest-wage earners. Median rents last month remained more than 17% higher than in November 2019.
Typical rents for studio apartments saw the smallest year-over-year decline, easing just 0.4% in November, which the listings platform says suggests “potential strengthening in renter demand.”
When applying a common 30% rent-to-income ratio, only five of the 50 largest U.S. metro areas were affordable for two-income households earning the metro’s minimum wage, including: Buffalo, N.Y.; Rochester, N.Y.; St. Louis; Phoenix; and Kansas City.
“While the challenge remains immense, particularly in high-cost areas, the number of metros where two minimum wage earners can afford a typical rental without working overtime will grow in 2026,” said Danielle Hale, chief economist at Realtor.com, in the report.
Minimum wages are scheduled to increase in a handful of major metros next year, reducing the number of “required hours” a renter earning minimum wage must work, by Realtor.com’s assessment, to afford that metro’s median rent.
The federal minimum wage is $7.25 per hour and has not been raised since 2009.
Thirty states and Washington, D.C., have passed legislation raising that threshold above the federal minimum. Other states have statutorily adopted the federal minimum.
And still other states have no legal minimum wage or have minimum wages below the federal minimum, causing the federal minimum to apply in those states, which includes: Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina, Tennessee and Wyoming.
According to the Economic Policy Institute, 67 localities across the U.S. have adopted minimum wages higher than their state minimum wage.
“The most challenging markets continue to be those where the local minimum wage defaults to the federal $7.25,” the Realtor.com study says, noting that few low-wage earners truly earn minimum wage because competition for workers drives up effective minimums.
Among the 50 largest U.S. metros, rent affordability for minimum-wage workers next year is expected to improve the most in Detroit, where the minimum wage is scheduled to increase to $13.73 from $10.56; Miami, where the minimum wage is set to increase to $15 from $13; and Tampa, Fla., where the minimum wage increase mirrors that of Miami.
In Detroit, Miami and Tampa, minimum wage increases are projected to reduce the number of weekly minimum-wage work hours required to afford a median-priced, zero- to two-bedroom unit by 12 hours, nine hours and seven hours, respectively.
