Houstonians looking for their next apartment or house to rent should consider living in the far north suburb of Conroe, which was just ranked the No. 31 best city in the nation for renters, and No. 5 in Texas.

Apartment rental marketplace RentCafe's report, "Best Cities for Renters to Live in 2024," annually compares 150 U.S. cities based on their quality of life, local economy, and cost of living and housing opportunities. Previously, Conroe has ranked No. 9 in the 2023 edition, and was No. 3 in 2022.

Charleston, South Carolina maintained its position as the No. 1 best city for renters for the second consecutive year. Rounding out the top five top rental markets are Atlanta, Georgia (No. 2), Sarasota, Florida (No. 3), McKinney, Texas (No. 4), and Scottsdale Arizona (No. 5).

Conroe performed the best in the study's ranking of housing and cost of living, earning No. 10 out of all 150 cities in the report. RentCafe found the suburb's overall cost of living is 7.9 percent lower than the national average, and 23.7 percent of all apartments in the city have been built within the last five years. The average size of an apartment in Conroe spans 924 square feet.

Despite Conroe's great housing opportunities and low cost of living, the city unfortunately fell behind in the "quality of life" category (No. 54) and "local economy" rank (No. 73).

Houston proper ranked as the No. 71 best city for renters in 2024, tumbling from its former rank as the No. 53 in 2023.

Here's how Houston performed in the study's three main categories out of all 150 cities:

• No. 38 – Housing and cost of living rank
• No. 78 – Quality of life rank
• No. 96 – Local economy rank

"When looking for the best place to rent in 2024, factors such as the size of apartments, employment or the quality of schools can really make a difference in the vetting process," the report said. "And while no city has everything, there are quite a few that come close and rank high for renters searching for options that better fit their wallets and lifestyle."

• No. 17 – Plano (down from No. 2 in 2023)
• No. 38 – Denton (down from No. 19 in 2023)
• No. 52 – Midland
• No. 53 – Fort Worth (down from No. 37 in 2023)
• No. 55 – San Marcos
• No. 57 – Dallas (down from No. 32 in 2023)
• No. 58 – Lubbock (down from No. 43 in 2023)
• No. 65 – San Antonio (down from No. 55 in 2023)
• No. 85 – Amarillo
• No. 91 – Waco (unchanged from 2023)

RentCafe used data from their sister site Yardi Matrix to determine each city's ranking based on 20 metrics, including average apartment size, the cost of living and housing, the share of renter-occupied households, renter household median income growth, and more. Cities were chosen if they had an "apartment stock" of a minimum of 10,000 units, and any cities with lower apartment stocks were excluded.

The full report can be found on rentcafe.com.