'And competition for home sales has been so ridiculous. 'In markets where home values are going up precipitously, that's also dragging rent up,' says Andrews. Home prices in mid-sized cities across the country are at an all-time high due to pent-up demand and a lack of housing supply, which, in turn, has affected rent prices, he says. 'The urban exodus narrative was really overblown,' says Jeff Andrews, the author of the study. Even so, San Francisco is still the most expensive city in the country to rent a two-bedroom apartment. One significant exception is San Francisco, where a two-bedroom apartment is almost $1,000 cheaper than its peak price in 2019, according to the Zumper's data. While rental prices in big cities like New York, Boston and Los Angeles dipped early in the pandemic, most of those prices have since returned to pre-pandemic levels, and in some cases, exceeded them. Housing costs were already rising before Covid, but pent-up demand, supply-chain disruptions, and reduced home construction during the pandemic have made the problem worse.

Ranking expensive rental global cities