How Much Are You Paying for Your Bathroom? America’s Most Expensive Bathroom Cities

How much is your bathroom really worth?

In a world of rising rents and skyrocketing home prices, Americans are spending more than ever just to have a private place to brush their teeth. Whether you’re renting a one-bedroom or shopping for your dream home, a surprising chunk of your housing cost goes to the smallest room in the house: the bathroom.

We crunched the numbers to find out just how much a bathroom is costing you in cities across the U.S., whether you’re renting or buying.

By analyzing housing data in major U.S. cities, we estimated the monthly rent cost of bathrooms, the purchase price of a bathroom in the housing market, and how these costs compare to local incomes.

Key Findings

• Boston has the most expensive bathroom rent in the U.S., with tenants paying $186/month just for the average-sized bathroom.
• If you’re buying, San Jose has the highest bathroom cost, clocking in at $80,617 per bathroom.
• When adjusted for income, Fort Worth, TX is where renters spend the largest share of their salary just to afford a bathroom, with over 5% of their monthly earnings.

Cities with the Most Expensive Bathrooms by Rent

To calculate bathroom-specific rent costs, we divided the median monthly rent by the average bathroom size to get a per-square-foot cost, then multiplied that by the bathroom’s square footage.

Top 10 Cities for Bathroom Rent

In Boston, the average monthly cost to rent a bathroom is $186, the highest among all cities analyzed. For comparison, the national average rent is around $1,400, meaning Boston renters are paying approximately 13% of the national median rent just for bathroom space.

This is partially due to Boston’s relatively small average home size at only 1,251 square feet, compared with larger homes in more affordable cities like Fort Worth or Charlotte. With less total space, every square foot in Boston carries a higher premium, especially in high-demand neighborhoods where square footage is limited and rent prices are among the highest in the country.

In fact, Boston ranks high in both overall rent and rent per square foot, which helps explain why such a small portion of the home commands such a large slice of the monthly rent. Cities like New York and San Francisco follow close behind, but Boston’s combination of compact housing and premium pricing pushes its bathroom rent to the top of the list.

Most Expensive Bathrooms to Buy

For buyers, we calculated bathroom costs by dividing the average home price by average bathroom square footage.

Top 10 Cities for Bathroom Purchase Price

In San Jose, the average cost of a bathroom when purchasing a home is a staggering $80,617—the highest among all cities included in the study. To put that figure in perspective, the national average price of a new car in 2025 is around $48,000, meaning San Jose homebuyers are spending nearly 70% more just for bathroom space than many Americans pay for an entire vehicle.

This is driven by the city’s exceptionally high home values. The average home price in San Jose is $1,426,853, the highest in the dataset, coupled with relatively modest home sizes—just under 1,582 square feet on average. With each square foot of space valued so highly, even the smallest rooms contribute significantly to the total purchase cost.

Notably, San Jose isn’t the only California city near the top. San Francisco and San Diego also appear in the top three, with bathroom costs of $70,209 and $56,823 respectively. This cluster of California cities shows the state’s ongoing real estate affordability crisis, where even basic amenities like bathrooms come with a luxury price tag.

Where Bathrooms Drain the Most of Your Salary

To see where bathrooms are hurting wallets the most, we compared bathroom rent prices to local average net monthly salaries.

Top 10 Cities Spending the Most Salary on Bathroom Rent

While having a relatively moderate bathroom rent of $113 per month, Fort Worth ranks first when it comes to the share of income spent on bathroom space—5.08% of the average monthly net salary goes toward just this one room. That’s the highest percentage of any city in the study.

This is largely due to Fort Worth’s lower average net monthly income of $2,226, which is among the lowest in the ranking. While the city’s overall cost of living is comparatively low and its housing prices are more affordable than in coastal markets, the gap between wages and rent still creates a significant affordability strain. In Fort Worth’s case, the affordability issue isn’t driven by high bathroom costs, but by limited earning power.

In contrast, cities like Boston, New York City, and San Diego have higher absolute bathroom rents, ranging from $158 to $186, but those costs represent a smaller percentage of income due to higher average salaries. For instance, in Boston, the $186 bathroom rent accounts for just 3.24% of a typical resident’s monthly paycheck, still significant, but nearly two percentage points lower than Fort Worth’s.

The Best Bathroom Value Cities?

Not all hope is lost. Cities like Denver and Charlotte offer a better balance – lower bathroom rents and more income to cover them. For buyers, Portland and Denver also represent good value, with bathroom costs well under $31,000 and more generous square footage.

You can access the full research by the link.

Methodology and Notes

To obtain these findings, we began by focusing on the most populous cities in the United States, as these urban centers best represent the country’s major housing markets. For each city, we collected data on average home size (in square feet) and median monthly rent using publicly available real estate databases and housing reports. For home buyers, we also gathered average home price data. These figures provided a reliable foundation for analyzing both rental and purchase costs in relation to bathroom space.

In order to estimate the size of a bathroom in each city, we referred to architectural and housing industry standards, which suggest that a bathroom typically accounts for 5.65% of a home’s total area. Using this figure, we calculated the average bathroom size by multiplying each city’s average home size by 0.0565. This gave us a consistent, standardized method to estimate bathroom dimensions based on local housing data.

From there, we calculated how much of the median rent could be attributed to the bathroom using a proportional formula. Specifically, we divided the estimated bathroom size by the total home size and multiplied the result by the city’s median monthly rent. This yielded the monthly rent value for just the bathroom, a surprisingly significant number in many cities.

For homebuyers, we applied a similar approach. We calculated a price per square foot by dividing the average home price by the average home size, then multiplied that rate by the bathroom size to estimate how much buyers are effectively paying for a bathroom within the total cost of a home.

To assess affordability more broadly, we compared the bathroom rent price to the average monthly net salary in each city. This allowed us to determine what percentage of a typical income is spent on renting just the bathroom, highlighting where residents may be feeling the cost the most.

Together, these calculations allowed us to rank cities across multiple dimensions, absolute bathroom cost for renters, bathroom value in real estate, and affordability in terms of income, to uncover where in the U.S. bathroom space is at the highest premium.

Jessie F