STUDY: St. Cloud, MN Rentals Among Most Affordable In United States

A recent study by Lawn Love has found that St. Cloud, Minnesota has some of the most affordable rental housing in the entire country. St. Cloud ranks as the eighth-most affordable in the United States in the survey.

I'll let Lawn Love explain its methodology:

First, we determined the factors (metrics) that are most relevant to rank the Most Expensive Metro Areas for Renters. We then assigned a weight to each factor based on its importance and grouped those factors into three categories: Rent Prices, Rent Affordability, and Cost Inflators. The categories, factors, and their weights are listed in the table below.

For each of the 198 biggest U.S. metros, we then gathered data on each factor from the sources listed below the table. We eliminated 2 metros lacking sufficient data in a single category, resulting in a final sample size of 196 metros.

Finally, we calculated scores (out of 100 points) for each metro to determine its rank in each factor, each category, and overall. A metro’s Overall Score is the average of its scores across all factors and categories. The highest Overall Score ranked “Worst/Most Expensive” (No. 1) and the lowest “Best/Least Expensive” (No. 196).

St. Cloud ranked only behind Rock Springs (WY), Sioux Falls, (SD), Ogden-Clearfield (UT), Fayetteville (AR), Racine (WI), Provo-Orem (UT) and Hickory (NC).

Of the 196 areas (196 being most affordable) on the rankings, St. Cloud finished 187th (9th best) in affordability, 188th (8th best) in rent price rank and 139th (57th) in cost inflators.

Other Minnesota cities to make the rankings include Rochester at 184, Minneapolis/St. Paul at 158 and Duluth at 152.