The upfront cost of moving to a cheaper rental

Key findings

• 83% of recent renters reported paying a security deposit in Zillow’s 2025 survey. Source

  Link to finding

• 23% of adult renters reported being behind on rent at some point in the year before the 2025 Federal Reserve survey, up from 21% in 2024. Source

  Link to finding

• Renter households had median cash savings of $1,810 in 2022, according to Harvard’s analysis of the Survey of Consumer Finances. Source

  Link to finding

A smaller monthly bill can need a bigger first payment

Moving creates two different questions: can the household assemble the cash needed before collecting the keys, and will the ongoing saving justify the costs that will not come back? Answering only the second can make an affordable-looking move impossible to start.

A refundable deposit ties money up. Advance rent changes when rent is paid. Application fees, a removal van and an extra week running two homes are costs to recover, if possible, from future savings. Treating all three as the same expense muddies the decision.

What recent renters were asked to pay

Zillow’s 2025 research puts deposits and application fees among the common entry costs of a rental. The chart concerns people who moved in the previous year, rather than every tenant in the country.

The same renter could appear in every bar. These figures describe how often a charge occurred, not the total price of a move or a rule that every landlord follows.

Source: Zillow, Consumer Housing Trends Report 2025, recent renters. Selected published aggregates; no new survey. Chart: The Room Study. Method and limits

Download chart (SVG)

The savings cushion has its own date

Harvard’s $1,810 median cash-savings figure comes from the 2022 Survey of Consumer Finances. It is useful historical context for the difficulty of finding a large sum at once, but it is not a current bank balance for a typical 2025 mover.

We have not combined it with other survey medians to invent an average cash shortfall. Nor do rent-arrears figures establish that moving costs caused the arrears. The studies describe different parts of financial pressure, using different people and periods.

Compare the home, as well as the rent

A lower asking rent can come with different utility charges, parking, a longer journey or furniture that will not fit. List the recurring costs you can reasonably estimate on both sides. Keep any first-month concession separate from the amount due later.

For the move itself, ask for the charges and payment dates in writing. Do not count on a deposit refund arriving before the next deposit is required. The tool below uses the costs you enter; it cannot decide whether a charge is permitted locally or whether the new home is the right choice.

Methodology & sources

Zillow surveyed adult household decision makers through six online nonprobability surveys in March–July 2025, using quotas and weighting. Its recent-renter group moved within the previous year. The report gives overall study participation, not the unweighted base or confidence interval for each fee item. We reproduce the published incidence figures, without adding them or implying causation.

The Federal Reserve’s probability-panel survey measures adults. Its 23% rent-arrears estimate refers to any time in the year before October 2025, not the share presently behind. It must not be treated as the same population or sample as Zillow’s recent movers.

The $1,810 estimate is Harvard’s published renter-household cash-savings tabulation from the 2022 Survey of Consumer Finances. The blog does not expose the exact cash-account definition or computation, so we attribute it to Harvard rather than claiming independent replication. It is a nominal 2022 amount.

We omit a national moving-cost total. Harvard’s illustrative $3,670 bundles medians from different sources and years; it is not an observed median of household totals. Zillow’s prose and table also disagree on which deposit median applies to payers. That unresolved deposit amount is excluded from our chart, claims and downloadable data.

Calculator: upfront cash = refundable deposit + prepaid rent + non-refundable fees + moving + additional overlap + setup costs. Monthly saving = current recurring cost − new recurring cost. Break-even = non-recoverable costs ÷ positive monthly saving; equal or higher new costs have no break-even. First-year net saving = 12 × monthly saving − non-recoverable costs. Deposits and advance rent are excluded from break-even, assuming full refund and rent credited as intended; they remain in the upfront cash figure. The estimate excludes financing, lost interest, subsequent rent changes and uncertain deposit deductions.

We review these resources when the underlying releases change. A review date does not make a figure expire: its measurement period stays visible until a checked revision replaces it.