Where does Las Vegas rank in a new list of best cities for renters?

Charleston, South Carolina, topped the list out of 136 cities, with Detroit coming in last, and Las Vegas was beat out by Reno, which came in at 26th and was the only other city in Nevada cited in the report.

RentCafe, which pulls its data partially from the U.S. Census Bureau, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, broke the rankings down into three categories — cost of living and housing, local economy and quality of life — representing 50, 30 and 20 percent of the rankings overall score, respectively.

Adina Dragos, the author of the study, said in an email response to the Review-Journal that close to half of Las Vegas residents rent, but there are a number of factors that drove Las Vegas down in the rankings.

“Despite the good spot in the cost of living and housing category, Las Vegas’ overall score was impacted by lower rankings in the local economy and quality of life departments, where it landed 83rd and 80th, respectively. Here, Las Vegas ranked below most cities with a 25.9 percent share of higher educated residents, while renter income was closer to the middle of the list, but still in the top half.”

Dragos also noted “the city’s ranking was dragged down by the lower air quality and a smaller share of apartments in desirable neighborhoods.”

Las Vegas ranked the lowest in local economy (121st), however the report did note it currently has one of the highest job growth rates of all cities in the U.S. at 4.2 percent. Some of the key markers for local economy are unemployment rate (7.7 percent in Las Vegas), which puts the city as having the 24th highest rate of unemployment in the country.

Another marker is average renter income, and for Las Vegas ($42,329) that puts the city in the middle of the pack and below Reno ($49,996).

Contact Patrick Blennerhassett at pblennerhassett@reviewjournal.com.