As anyone who’s ever rented a studio apartment knows, having that separate bedroom can be a real life-changer. But in high-rent cities, the extra cost for that bedroom can be steep.
Yardi Matrix looked at rents in apartment communities with 50 or more units in the 25 most populous U.S. cities and found that moving from a studio to a one-bedroom ranges from an extra $51 to $1,169 per month, or a rent increase of 7 to 43 percent.
Not surprisingly, New York City accounts for the biggest studio-to-one-bedroom rent jump ($1,169 more per month), followed by San Francisco ($778), Boston ($739), Chicago ($532) and San Jose, California ($465). However, by percentage increase, Chicago takes first place, with a 43 percent difference between studio and one-bedroom rents.
On average, residents get an extra 243 square feet—51 percent more space—when upgrading from a studio to a one-bedroom apartment.
The average monthly rent increase when upgrading from a one-bedroom to a two-bedroom apartment is $162, or 15 percent. In the top 25 cities by population, the percentage increase in monthly rent has a similar range to the studio-to-one-bedroom move: from 6 to 43 percent. Again, that move costs the most in New York ($1,710 rent jump), followed by San Francisco ($1,092), Los Angeles ($787), Boston ($719) and Chicago ($689).
The move from one bedroom to two adds an average of 292 square feet, or 41 percent more living space.