Photo: REX USA/Dan Callister.Alright everyone, sing it with us! "O beautiful for spacious skies, for oil towns will reign. For purple mountain majesties, high rent will cause you pain. Dakota, North Dakota our wallets do hate thee."
So, that's not how the song goes, but if we happened to live in the most expensive city to shack up in, it would. That's right, y'all, North Dakota is home of the most expensive city to call home. Sure, New York City rent makes even the toughest footballer cringe and the cost of all that natural Los Angeles living will set the average person back farther than they'd like, but Williston, North Dakota has the highest rent for a small apartment.
According to Apartment Guide data, a Williston apartment hunter will pay, on average, $2,000 a month for a 700-square-foot one bedroom, one bath place. A little more space, like a three-bedroom place with three baths will set a renter back $4,500 a month. (Okay, to be fair, finding that kind of pad at that price in Manhattan is a shot in you know what.) Due to the booming oil industry in Williston, the population has swelled and created many high-paying jobs. There aren't enough apartments for the 30K-plus people calling the oil town home. Apartment Guide reports that most citizens make over six figures, which means it's slim apartment pickings out there.
How did Apartment Guide land on this lil' town in North Dakota? It factored in the lowest average price of the smallest apartment floor plans across the nation and averaged them all. The baseline price for entry level spaces in Williston beat out New York, Chicago, and San Francisco. Shocked? Check out the interactive map below and see for yourself. Suddenly that closet on the sixth floor of a walk-up sounds pretty nice. (Apartment Guide)
