This article is part of our Moving Guides.
Last updated October 23, 2026
Of the nine big cities we cover, Houston, Denver, Austin and Dallas are the easiest to afford on your own: a typical one-bedroom takes about 29–33% of the income MIT says one adult needs there. New York is the hardest by far at 71%, followed by Miami (56%) and Chicago (50%). Denver’s high minimum wage makes it the easiest city to cover rent on a minimum-wage job.
This index puts the numbers that matter most for a move side by side: rent, the income you need, the minimum wage, taxes and the cost of getting around. Every figure links to its source at the bottom of the page, and we recheck it every quarter.
How do the nine cities compare?
| City | Typical 1-bedroom rent | Income one adult needs (MIT) | Minimum wage | Income tax on wages | Sales tax | Monthly transit |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chicago | $2,200†| $52,909 ($25.44/hr) | $17.05 | Illinois 4.95% flat | 10.5% | $75 (CTA 30-day pass) |
| New York | $4,700 | $79,469 ($38.21/hr) | $17.00 | State 3.9%–10.9% plus city 3.078%–3.876% | 8.875% | About $150 (OMNY caps fares at $35 in any 7 days) |
| Dallas | $1,317 | $48,489 ($23.31/hr) | $7.25 | None | 8.25% | $126 (DART local monthly) |
| Atlanta | $1,625 | $55,599 ($26.73/hr) | $7.25 | Georgia 4.99% flat | 8.9% | $95 (MARTA 30-day pass) |
| Austin | $1,305 | $49,279 ($23.69/hr) | $7.25 | None | 8.25% | $41.25 (CapMetro monthly cap, until Jan. 10, 2027) |
| Denver | $1,427* | $55,384 ($26.63/hr) | $19.29 | Colorado 4.4% flat | 9.15% | $88 (RTD monthly pass) |
| Houston | $1,100 | $44,989 ($21.63/hr) | $7.25 | None | 8.25% | No monthly pass ($1.25 a ride, $3 day pass) |
| Miami | $2,500 | $54,037 ($25.98/hr) | $15.00 | None | 7% | $112.50 (Miami-Dade 1-month pass) |
| Nashville | $1,613 | $51,243 ($24.64/hr) | $7.25 | None | 9.75% | $65 (WeGo monthly cap) |
Which big city is easiest to afford on your own?
Houston. A typical one-bedroom there costs 29% of the income MIT says one adult needs in Harris County, the lowest share of the nine. The table ranks every city by that share, and adds a second measure: how many hours a month you would have to work to cover rent at the city’s minimum wage and at MIT’s living wage.
| Rank | City | Rent as a share of the income one adult needs | Hours of work a month to pay rent at minimum wage | Hours at MIT’s living wage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Houston | 29% | 152 | 51 |
| 2 | Denver | 31% | 74 | 54 |
| 3 | Austin | 32% | 180 | 55 |
| 4 | Dallas | 33% | 182 | 56 |
| 5 | Atlanta | 35% | 224 | 61 |
| 6 | Nashville | 38% | 222 | 66 |
| 7 | Chicago | 50% | 129 | 86 |
| 8 | Miami | 56% | 167 | 96 |
| 9 | New York | 71% | 277 | 123 |
The two measures don’t always agree. Denver ranks second on the income share, but first by a wide margin on minimum-wage hours, because its city minimum wage of $19.29 is the highest of the nine. In Atlanta, Nashville and the three Texas cities the minimum wage is the federal $7.25, so a minimum-wage worker would need more than 150 hours a month just for rent. Chicago and New York have city or state minimum wages of $17, which narrows the gap even where rent is high.
Which cities have no income tax?
Five of the nine: Dallas, Austin and Houston (Texas has no personal income tax), Miami (Florida has none) and Nashville (Tennessee doesn’t tax wages). Atlanta, Chicago and Denver have flat state rates between 4.4% and 4.99%. New York is the only city on the list with its own income tax, on top of the state’s. Denver also charges employees $5.75 a month once they earn $500 or more there. Cities without an income tax lean on sales tax instead, which is why Nashville’s 9.75% is among the highest here.
Where can you get by without a car?
New York and Chicago, and in Atlanta and Denver if you live and work near a rail line. In Dallas, Houston, Austin, Nashville and most of Miami, most newcomers end up driving. Transit is cheapest in Austin, where CapMetro caps local fares at $41.25 a month until January 10, 2027, and in Nashville, where WeGo caps them at $65. Houston METRO sells no monthly pass at all. Each city’s car guide covers what it costs to drive there.
How much cash do you need to move in?
For a renter without a car, first month’s rent, a one-month deposit and a month of transit add up to roughly $2,200 in Houston and more than $9,000 in New York. Our move-in costs by city page breaks that down and adds each state’s deposit and application-fee rules, utility setup and the cost of registering a car.
What kind of apartment buildings will you find?
It varies a lot. New York’s are the tallest by far, at a median of 31 floors, while in Austin, Houston, Nashville, Atlanta and Dallas the typical building is a complex of five floors or fewer. In every city except New York, at least half of the buildings went up in 2010 or later, and in Miami and Nashville it’s three in four. See apartment buildings by city for age, height and size across nearly 2,000 buildings.
How we built this index
We use one source for each column so the cities can be compared fairly. Rent is Zumper’s average one-bedroom rent for October 2026, with two exceptions. In Denver, Zumper’s own page gives two different figures, so we use Apartment List’s October 2026 median. In Chicago, Zumper’s city page shows a one-year jump of 21% that no other source supports, so we use the September 2026 median from Zumper’s National Rent Report ($2,200), which matches other sources. The income figure is MIT’s Living Wage Calculator for one working adult with no children, for the county that contains each city (data last updated February 15, 2026). Minimum wages, transit fares and tax rates are the ones in effect on October 23, 2026. We recheck the whole table every quarter, in January, April, July and October.
Rent figures from listing sites measure asking rents on apartments for rent now, so what you pay may differ, and each site measures differently. Use this table to compare cities, then use each city’s guide for the detail.
Frequently asked questions
What is the cheapest big city to move to?
Of the nine we cover, Houston has the lowest typical one-bedroom rent ($1,100 in October 2026) and the lowest share of a living-wage income spent on rent (29%). Austin and Dallas are close behind.
What is the most expensive big city to move to?
New York. A typical one-bedroom averages $4,700, which is 71% of the $79,469 a year MIT says one adult needs in Manhattan.
How much do you need to earn to live alone in a big city?
MIT’s estimates for one adult with no children range from about $45,000 a year in Houston’s Harris County to about $79,000 in Manhattan. That covers a basic budget, not savings or extras.
Sources
- Rent: Zumper rent research, October 2026, for New York, Dallas, Atlanta, Austin, Houston, Miami and Nashville; Apartment List, Denver rent report, October 2026; Chicago: Zumper National Rent Report, September 2026
- Income: MIT Living Wage Calculator (updated February 15, 2026), counties: Cook, New York, Dallas, Fulton, Travis, Denver, Harris, Miami-Dade, Davidson
- Minimum wage: Chicago, July 1, 2026 (employers with 4 or more workers); New York State Department of Labor; Denver Labor; Florida, September 30, 2026; federal $7.25 elsewhere
- Transit: CTA, MTA, DART, MARTA, CapMetro, RTD, Houston METRO, Miami-Dade Transit, WeGo
- Taxes: Georgia 2026 rate; for the other cities, each city guide’s tax section links the official source
Author: Go Big City Team
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