As anyone who has ever lived in an apartment can tell you, having an in-unit washer and dryer is pretty much the luxury to end all luxuries. As such, it's to be expected that an apartment with that amazing perk will set you back a little more per month than one without it — but exactly how much does it cost to have laundry in your apartment, anyway? The good news is that real estate website Trulia did the math to figure out how much extra you'll pay to have in-unit washers and dryers in a number of cities across the U.S. The bad news? Most of them are pretty pricey.
Trulia sourced their data from the Zillow Group's rental listing database, limiting their pool to units in multi-family apartment buildings for rent between September of 2014 and February of 2015. They divided the listings into quartiles based on how old each building was for each of 10 metro areas; then they calculated the premium paid for in-unit laundry facilities for each quartile by taking the difference between the median rent of apartments with washers and dryers and apartments without them. Then — finally — all of those premiums for all those quartiles were averaged in order to find the general premium for each metro area.
Although I never lived anywhere fancy enough to have in-unit washers and dryers, I was lucky enough when I was based out of New York to have laundry either in the basement of my building, or a laundromat half a block away. Even then, though, it was still a pain in the butt to have to save up all your quarters, haul your laundry bag down several flights of stairs and/or outside, and then either sit in the laundromat while your wardrobe whirled away or make constant trips back and forth to switch loads. Most of us would probably agree that it would be worth shelling out a little extra for the convenience of being able to wash your clothes whenever you want without having to lug it somewhere else first… but it's all dependent on how steep that premium is.
Then again, hey, I suppose at least if we have these problems, they mean we have access to washers and dryers in the first place. That's a silver lining regardless, right?
Here are the five metro areas with the most affordable premiums for in-unit laundry — although it's worth bearing in mind that “most affordable” doesn't necessarily mean actually affordable. Check out the full list, as well as the best neighborhoods for in-unit laundry in each city, over at Trulia.
1. Dallas-Fort Worth, TX
In the Dallas-Fort Worth area, the average rent for a multi-family building is $1,200 per month; the premium for having an in-unit washer and dryer is only three percent, or about $33 a month. However, only about a quarter of the listings actually specified in-unit laundry facilities, so although they might be affordable, they also might be hard to come by.
2. Seattle, WA
At $1,495, Seattle's average rent is a little pricier; so, too, is the premium as expressed as a percentage (four percent). However, the actual dollar amount pegged to having a washer and dryer is slightly lower at $29 per month.
3. Miami-Fort Lauderdale, FL
And here's where we start to see a bit of a jump: The average rent in the Miami-FL area is $1,650; the average premium for in-unit laundry is five percent; and the dollar amount of that percentage is $79. The good news is that if you're splitting your rent with a few roommates, that's probably doable.
4. Atlanta, GA
The premium goes up percentage-wise in Atlanta — it's seven percent — but the dollar amounts are cheaper than Miami. As is the case in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, monthly rent averages out to about $1,200; the premium for in-unit washers and dryers adds on about another $73 bucks.
5. San Diego, CA
It's absolutely no surprise that everything jumps in California. The average monthly rent in San Diego is $1,750; the premium for a washer and dryer directly in your unit is right percent; and the dollar amount of that premium is… $118. Uh… yikes. But hey, I guess at least it's cheap compared to Los Angeles and San Francisco?
Check out the full list at Trulia.
Images: GloriaGarcia/Flickr; Getty Images (5)
