As we gear up to enter a new peak rental season, RentCafe looked at 200 U.S. cities with a mission: to find out how much apartment space can renters get on a $1,500 budget, including how much apartment space you can rent on a budget in Metro Phoenix.
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The state of Arizona is one of contrasts. For a budget of $1,500, half of the cities offer more than the national average of 782 square feet and half offer less.
Here are the details:
• In Arizona, renters get the best bang for their buck in Tucson. Not only does it offer more than 900 square feet, but it’s the only city where you can get a three-bedroom apartment for that amount. The average rent in Tucson is $1,239 for an average size apartment of 762 square feet.
• Looking at the Phoenix metro area, renters have two small cities and two big cities to choose from to get 800 square feet. For $1,500, in Surprise and Peoria a one- or two-bedroom apartment provides an average of 844 square feet and 825 square feet, respectively. The average rent here is between $1,742 and $1,653 per month. In Mesa and Glendale renters can live on a budget and can get one- or two-bedroom apartments of around 810 square feet. The average rent in these two cities is roughly $1,500.
• In Tempe and Scottsdale renters get the least amount of space in Arizona. In the smaller city, for $1,500 per month, one- or two-bedroom apartments are around 690 square feet, while in the bigger one they are 674 square feet. The average rent in Tempe is $1,909 and Scottsdale’s is $2,098.
• Phoenix, along with Chandler and Gilbert, offers a little less space than the national average of 782 square feet. In the Valley, the average rent is $1,556, while rent in Phoenix and in the other two cities the average rent is a little over $1,800.
