Austin renters are spending less of their paychecks on housing than anyone else living alone in a major U.S. metro, while San Antonio holds onto the title of cheapest average rent among Texas’s big three. A new breakdown, published in 2026 and based on 2024 income and 2025 asking-rent data, shows just how differently the math works out for people renting one-bedroom apartments in Austin, San Antonio and Dallas-Fort Worth.
Austin landed at No. 1 on a list of the 10 most affordable metros in the country for living alone, according to a report from Apartments.com released in mid-October. The company found that Austin renters spend just 23.1% of income on a one-bedroom apartment, the smallest share of any major metro in the nation. San Antonio came in at No. 6 on the same list, and Dallas-Fort Worth ranked No. 7, as later reported by MySA.
The Numbers Behind the Rankings
Apartments.com built its rankings by comparing one-bedroom asking rents against median renter-household incomes in the 50 largest U.S. metros, using what CultureMap San Antonio described as a 30% common budgeting guideline. The income figures came from the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2024 American Community Survey 1-Year Estimates, while the one-bedroom asking rents were pulled from CoStar Group’s 2025 reports, per the same account.
San Antonio’s typical one-bedroom asking rent came in at $1,082 a month, the lowest average rent among the three Texas metros in the report, with a median annual renter-household income of just over $51,000. San Antonio renters spend 25.4% of monthly income on rent, the sixth-lowest share among the 50 largest metros nationwide, per the same report. Austin’s one-bedroom asking rent was $1,348 a month, against a median renter-household income of just over $70,000.
Where Dallas-Fort Worth and Oklahoma City Fit In
Dallas-Fort Worth renters pay the same $1,348 average monthly rent as Austin but spend a larger share of income, 25.6%, against a median renter-household income of $63,172, the CultureMap report notes. Nationally, San Antonio ranked No. 2 most affordable by average monthly rent, trailing only Oklahoma City, where renters pay an average of $931 a month, according to the figures cited in the MySA report…