From 500 to 945 Square Feet: How Much Space $1,500 Rents in the DC Area

• April 4th 2022

by Nena Perry-Brown

A new report illustrates just how little space one would be able to rent for the elusive price of $1,500 a month in the DC region. 

The DC area is the 15th-stingiest nationwide when it comes to the amount of space one can rent for $1,500, per a new RentCafe report. The average square footage varies widely throughout the area at that budget, with as much as 945 square feet in District Heights, Maryland and as little as 500 square feet in DC proper.

A few of the other DC-area jurisdictions where one can get the most bang for their $1,500/month rental rate are far-flung locales like Fredericksburg, Virginia (866 square feet); Annandale, Virginia (862 square feet); and Frederick, Maryland (850 square feet). One of the closest to DC proper is Takoma Park, where $1,500 will get you an average of 894 square feet, perhaps due in part to the older age of the rental stock there.

As for the local jurisdictions with the least amount of space for the price, Arlington comes in not far behind DC proper with just 548 square feet of space on average. According to RentCafé, rental applications for Arlington units from Generation Z (as old as 25) have increased by 55% year-over-year.

Many of the other localities with the least square footage are also in some of the more expensive areas, such as Bethesda (569 square feet); McLean (584 square feet); Chevy Chase (639 square feet); and North Bethesda (642 square feet). 

The analysis uses Yardi Matrix data for properties with 50 or more units in the Census-defined metros of the 100 most-populated cities nationwide (as of 2019). The data was used to calculate price per square foot based on the average rents and average size of apartments in each location.

This article originally published at https://dc.urbanturf.com/articles/blog/from-500-to-945-square-feet-how-much-space-1500-rents-in-the-dc-area/19475.