The city of Orlando was ranked among the top 40 best places to rent in America, despite ranking near the bottom of the list for rental market availability and affordability.
Earlier this month, personal finance website WalletHub released its 2023 Best & Worst Places to Rent in America, which compared rent costs across nearly 200 cities in the United States.
According to the company, the cities were compared on 21 key measures of rental attractiveness and quality of life, with data sets ranging from the difference between rental rates and mortgage payments to historical price changes, job availability, and the cost of living.
Although it ranked higher than over 140 other cities, the City Beautiful ranked 133 in rental market and affordability. In quality of life, Orlando nearly broke the top 15, coming in at 17.
Tampa was the only other city in Florida that ranked ahead of Orlando, with multiple others cities ranking well below. That includes Jacksonville (#49), Port St. Lucie (#68), Pembroke Pines (#69), St. Petersburg (#73), Cape Coral (#107), Tallahassee (#133), Miami (#146), and Hialeah, which ranked only a few spots from the bottom of the list at 173.
According to the report, approximately 44 million Americans currently rent because of “convenience, cost or both.” Last year, rental prices saw the second-highest price growth in decades with a 6.2% year-over-year increase.
The report runs somewhat contrary to the National Rent Report created by Zumper in May of this year. In that report, the company named Orlando as the 25th worst city in which to rent a 1-bedroom apartment.
WalletHub has released multiple rankings in the past several months, with Orlando prominently featured in many of them.
During the first week of July, the company released its 2023 Best & Worst Cities for Recreation, ranking Orlando second after only Las Vegas.
During the second week of July, Architectural Digest named Steinmetz Hall as one of the 11 most beautiful theaters in the world.
In May, WalletHub named Orlando the best city for summer jobs, as well as the best large city in the country in which to start a business.
That same month, Rent.com ranked Orlando as the best city in which to work remotely.
To find out which other cities made the rental list, read WalletHub’s 2023 Best & Worst Places to Rent in America.