Columbia boasts the 15th-cheapest average rent in the country, according to this survey

Rent at Four Winds Villages is reasonable, said Chris Mitchell, who was moving into his apartment on Monday.

He will be sharing a three-bedroom, 1,350-square-foot apartment with a roommate and sharing the monthly rent cost of $1,210, making his share $605.

While inflation is affecting most costs — including rent — Columbia remains one of the cheapest places in the U.S. to rent an apartment, according to a new ranking of average rents.

Columbia is No. 15 in the ranking among cities with a population of at least 50,000, with an average monthly rent of $915. That average price shows the impact of inflation, however, increasing by nearly 20% in the past year. The average rent in Columbia a year ago was $765.

The ranking is done by Rent, which operates the website rent.com. It describes itself as a resource for taking the hassle out of renting.

His favorite location in Columbia so far has been a house on Williams Street, Mitchell said, where he had three roommates and shared the $1,200 or $1,300 rent four ways.

He's moving out of The Quarters, off Old Highway 63, where the rent for a two-bedroom, 758-square-foot apartment is advertised at $640 per bedroom.

"It served its purpose," Mitchell said.

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Rental property owners gear their rental prices toward university students, said Jon Leckie, researcher with Rent.

"A college town is going to have a little bit lower rent for students without a regular income," Leckie said.

The pandemic depressed rental prices some, but now they're rising steeply, Leckie said.

"We saw that in most cities," Leckie said of the increase.

The fact that Columbia is the only metro city in the area also helps keep prices down, he said.

"Columbia's kind of shielded a little from the price increases," Leckie said.

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Mickey Doolittle, 20, will be moving into East Campus Apartments, where his share of the rent will be $490 per month for a room in a three-bedroom apartment.

"I'm from California, so it's really, really cheap" compared with rents back home, Doolittle said.

"They market it toward individual rooms," Doolittle said of the costs for student housing.

"It's a big place," Doolittle said. "We did get on it really early."

It's a good deal, he said.

"I'm someone more worried about location" than price, he said.

A.J. Spinello on Monday was preparing to move to District Flats. He didn't renew early enough at The Lofts, he said.

He will have a two-bedroom apartment where the rent is around $809, he said.

The price is reasonable, he said.

"Parking is the worst" at the downtown location, he said.

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Pursuing a master's degree in business, the 23-year-old Spinello operates K.C. Vending Co.

Springfield is No. 2 in the same rent ranking, with an average rent of $701.

That city's low cost of living contributed to rent prices, Leckie said.

"It's kind of away from the major metros," he said. "It had more inbound searches than outbound searches."

Wichita had the lowest average rent in the ranking. At $598, it was the only average rent below $700.

St. Louis was at No. 76 in the ranking, with an average rent of $1,425. It dropped 27% in a year, by $528. It's the only metro to drop by more than $500 for the year.

"More people are looking to leave St. Louis, bringing rents down," Leckie said was the likely explanation.

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Kansas City was at No. 72 in the ranking, with an average monthly rent of $1,421. It dropped by just over 2%. Interestingly, neighboring Independence had the same monthly rent, but it had increased by 20% to match Kansas City's average rent.

For those who seek every opportunity to outdo Lawrence, Kansas, home to the University of Kansas: It was at No. 17, with an average rent of $952, a slight decline from the previous year.

"What we're seeing is rents going down in the Midwest and the Rust Belt," Leckie said.

Rents are going through the roof in Ohio, he said.

Roger McKinney is the education reporter for the Tribune. You can reach him at rmckinney@columbiatribune.com or 573-815-1719. He's on Twitter at @rmckinney9.

This article originally appeared on Columbia Daily Tribune: Columbia ranked 15th for cheapest average rent with 20% increase