Fourteen of the most affordable U.S. counties, by rent burden
Fourteen counties across the country are among the most affordable in the nation by rent burden — in each, median rent equals roughly 11 to 12 percent of median household income. Every one has household income at or above its state's median: these are places with solid incomes and low housing costs, not places that are simply poor.
Why these are genuinely affordable, not just cheap
Every county on this list has a median household income at or above its state's median — Posey County's $79,124 is 114% of Indiana's, Oldham County's $121,491 is 199% of Kentucky's. These aren't places that look affordable because incomes are depressed; three counties that would otherwise have qualified (Effingham, IL; Wabasha, MN; Jersey, IL) were dropped from this list because their household incomes fell just below their state's median — leaving the fourteen here as counties where low rent burden reflects a genuinely solid-income, reasonable-cost local economy.
Lowest rent burden
Sorted by rent burden, lowest first| County | State | Rent burden (% of income) | Median household income |
|---|---|---|---|
| Oldham | KY | 11.3 | $121,491 |
| Posey | IN | 11.3 | $79,124 |
| Benton | IA | 11.5 | $84,742 |
| Spencer † | KY | 11.6 | $98,333 |
| LaGrange | IN | 11.7 | $83,741 |
| Le Sueur | MN | 11.8 | $90,218 |
| Monroe | IL | 11.8 | $101,635 |
| Spencer ‡ | IN | 11.8 | $70,890 |
| Campbell | WY | 12.0 | $95,253 |
| Powhatan § | VA | 12.0 | $110,667 |
| Franklin ¶ | IN | 12.1 | $79,702 |
| Geauga | OH | 12.1 | $100,783 |
| Lincoln ‖ | WY | 12.1 | $86,092 |
| Mineral †† | WV | 12.1 | $68,049 |
- †Spencer County's income figure carries a margin of error of about 10.6% of the estimate — treat its 11.6 figure as an approximate range, not a precise point number, in any headline.
- ‡Spencer County's rent figure carries a margin of error of about 12.2% of the estimate — treat its 11.8 figure as an approximate range, not a precise point number, in any headline.
- §Powhatan County's rent figure carries a margin of error of about 26.5% of the estimate — treat its 12.0 figure as an approximate range, not a precise point number, in any headline.
- ¶Franklin County's rent figure carries a margin of error of about 13.2% of the estimate — treat its 12.1 figure as an approximate range, not a precise point number, in any headline.
- ‖Lincoln County's rent figure carries a margin of error of about 18.1% of the estimate — treat its 12.1 figure as an approximate range, not a precise point number, in any headline.
- ††Mineral County's rent figure carries a margin of error of about 23.8% of the estimate — treat its 12.1 figure as an approximate range, not a precise point number, in any headline.
Rent burden is median gross rent as a share of median household income — this figure is from the U.S. Census Bureau's 2019–2023 American Community Survey.
Why we don't name a #1
These counties aren't ranked against each other. Rent burden here comes from a Census survey estimate, and small-county estimates carry a margin of error — sometimes a wide one. The published values on this list span just 11.3% to 12.1%, with some adjacent counties differing by only hundredths of a percentage point, while the underlying margins run far wider: Powhatan County, VA's own rent-burden figure carries a margin of error of about 27.2% of the estimate, and Mineral County, WV's about 24.8%. A gap that small can't be meaningfully ordered against uncertainty that large. We can say with confidence these are among the most affordable counties in the country by this measure — we can't say with confidence which one is the very lowest, because the survey's own uncertainty is wider than the differences between them. Rows with the same figure are listed alphabetically within that group.
This ranking is one slice of the full data. The County List with Demographics carries median income, rent, and home value for all 3,221 U.S. counties in one CSV.
- The County List with Demographics page has a free 100-row sample — download it to see the columns first.
- Get the County List with Demographics ($199) for the complete file.
More county affordability rankings
Every figure fact-checked against the Census Bureau's 2019–2023 American Community Survey.
Methodology & sources
"Rent burden" is median gross rent as a share of median household income (Census Table B25064 for rent, S1901/B19013 for income), from the 2019–2023 American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates. Cite the specific data.census.gov detailed-table page (ACSST5Y2023/ACSDT5Y2023), not census.gov's QuickFacts tool — QuickFacts has since rolled forward to the newer 2020–2024 vintage and will show different numbers for the same county. Figures pulled directly from the U.S. Census Bureau's own ACS 2019–2023 5-Year detailed tables (B19013 household income, B25064 median gross rent, B25077 median home value), each carrying its own published margin of error. Faithfully reproduced from the Bureau's release, not independently re-measured.
Prepared from our data team's 2026-08-07 delivery.
How precise are these figures? Each value is a Census survey estimate with its own margin of error, and here they are wide. The rent-burden figure carries a wider margin than the rent estimate alone — about 27.2% of the estimate for Powhatan County, VA and about 24.8% for Mineral County, WV, against the 26.5% and 23.8% footnoted above for those same counties' rent estimates themselves. All fourteen published values span just 11.3% to 12.1%. The table is ordered by the published figure, but those margins are wider than the gaps between most rows, so the order reflects the figure, not a demonstrated difference.