It’s that time of year again!
With Thanksgiving tomorrow, we at Apartment List are excited for the upcoming celebrations: family time, TV, and turkey (lots of it)! Which made us wonder – how much would rent cost in Chicago if we paid with Thanksgiving dinners? Lo and behold, we present the 2015 Apartment List Turkey Index!
Methodology
To create the index, we used two data points: the median price of a two-bedroom apartment and the average cost of a Thanksgiving dinner in each city. The rental data was pulled from hundreds of thousands of listings from our website.
For the Thanksgiving dinner, we used the average prices of a Thanksgiving dinner ($50.70 when you include turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes and pie), and adjusted the prices for each city using the grocery component of a cost of living index. Finally, we divided the two-bedroom price by the average cost of a Thanksgiving dinner to get the Turkey Index.
Dinners for Days
Looking at the data, we see that there is substantial variation in turkey dinner rents across cities in the United States. It takes Chicago renters roughly 26.5 Thanksgiving dinners to make one month of rent, with Minneapolis (26), Nashville (24.5), Pittsburgh (23), and San Antonio (22) all coming in nearby in turkey dinner terms.
In contrast, residents can expect to pay a whopping 57.5 dinners to their landlords in D.C. where skyrocketing rents have been outpacing income growth. Renters in other coastal cities struggle as well, with San Francisco (78), New York (49), Miami (48.5), and Boston (48) rounding out the top 5.
If you’re interested, we’re including data for 88 cities across the United States. Check out the table below to see how other cities compare– and have a great holiday celebration!
| City | Average Price of 2BR (October 2015) | Turkey Dinner Index (2BR) |
|---|---|---|
| San Francisco, CA | $4950 | 78 |
| Washington, DC | $3000 | 57.5 |
| New York, NY | $3500 | 49 |
| Miami, FL | $2680 | 48.5 |
| Boston, MA | $2550 | 48 |
| Los Angeles, CA | $2200 | 41 |
| San Jose, CA | $2500 | 41 |
| New Orleans, LA | $1800 | 35 |
| San Diego, CA | $1900 | 35 |
| Dallas, TX | $1750 | 34.5 |
| Seattle, WA | $2190 | 34 |
| Fort Lauderdale, FL | $1800 | 34 |
| Portland, OR | $1960 | 33 |
| Austin, TX | $1370 | 33 |
| Denver, CO | $1530 | 31 |
| Houston, TX | $1350 | 31 |
| Atlanta, GA | $1550 | 30.5 |
| Chicago, IL | $1590 | 26.5 |
| Minneapolis, MN | $1440 | 26 |
| Nashville, TN | $1170 | 24.5 |
| Virginia Beach, VA | $1100 | 23.5 |
| Pittsburgh, PA | $1160 | 23 |
| San Antonio, TX | $940 | 22 |
| Durham, NC | $1050 | 22 |
| Corpus Christi, TX | $910 | 21.5 |
| Sacramento, CA | $1250 | 21.5 |
| Tacoma, WA | $1050 | 21 |
| Boise City, ID | $830 | 21 |
| St. Paul, MN | $1100 | 20.5 |
| Tampa, FL | $1000 | 20.5 |
| Manchester, NH | $1160 | 20.5 |
| Providence, RI | $1200 | 20 |
| Vancouver, WA | $1050 | 20 |
| Colorado Springs, CO | $900 | 19.5 |
| Anchorage, AK | $1200 | 19.5 |
| Fort Worth, TX | $900 | 19.5 |
| Salt Lake City, UT | $900 | 19 |
| Baltimore, MD | $1170 | 18 |
| Orlando, FL | $1000 | 19 |
| Philadelphia, PA | $1050 | 18.5 |
| Grand Rapids, MI | $850 | 18.5 |
| Raleigh, NC | $930 | 18 |
| Knoxville, TN | $750 | 17.5 |
| Omaha, NE | $850 | 17.5 |
| Norfolk, VA | $830 | 17.5 |
| Richmond, VA | $810 | 17.5 |
| Madison, WI | $880 | 17 |
| Albuquerque, NM | $820 | 17 |
| Charlotte, NC | $910 | 17 |
| Columbus, OH | $800 | 17 |
| Lexington, KY | $790 | 17 |
| Kansas City, MO | $720 | 16.5 |
| Baton Rouge, LA | $840 | 16.5 |
| Phoenix, AZ | $800 | 16.5 |
| Des Moines, IA | $730 | 16 |
| Spokane, WA | $750 | 15.5 |
| Fargo, ND | $900 | 15.5 |
| St. Louis, MO | $840 | 15.5 |
| Lincoln, NE | $760 | 15.5 |
| Tulsa, OK | $750 | 15.5 |
| Louisville, KY | $700 | 15.5 |
| Milwaukee, WI | $800 | 15.5 |
| Cincinnati, OH | $680 | 15 |
| Oklahoma City, OK | $690 | 15 |
| Jacksonville, FL | $780 | 14.5 |
| Bakersfield, CA | $760 | 14.4 |
| Tucson, AZ | $700 | 14.4 |
| Little Rock, AR | $670 | 14.4 |
| Winston-Salem, NC | $700 | 14.4 |
| Mobile, AL | $730 | 14 |
| El Paso, TX | $750 | 14 |
| Las Vegas, NV | $850 | 14 |
| Rochester, NY | $680 | 14 |
| Hartford, CT | $900 | 13.5 |
| Huntsville, AL | $640 | 13.5 |
| Reno, NV | $750 | 13.5 |
| Detroit, MI | $600 | 13.5 |
| Indianapolis, IN | $630 | 13.5 |
| Wichita, KS | $600 | 13 |
| Stockton, CA | $780 | 13 |
| Montgomery, AL | $640 | 12.5 |
| Memphis, TN | $570 | 12.5 |
| Birmingham, AL | $650 | 12.5 |
| Columbus, GA | $630 | 12 |
| Cleveland, OH | $600 | 11 |
| Fort Wayne, IN | $500 | 10.5 |
| Akron, OH | $600 | 10 |
Andrew has lived in 13 different apartments in the past six years. He currently is a Manager of Growth Strategy at Apartment List, leading research on rental market trends and renter satisfaction. His interests include cycling, cooking and tennis.
