Here at Zumper, we care about helping you find your next place. You deserve a fresh start, which is why we’ve partnered with Mint Mobile, premium wireless for only $15 a month, to offer you the chance to win free rent for a year.
You read that right. One grand prize winner will receive free rent for a year, in the amount of $36,000. We hope that it helps you start fresh, whether you spend the money on your current lease, a move across town, or a move across the country.
What’s the fine print?
There’s no catch. One grand-prize winner will receive $36,000 that can be used towards rent. Second-place winners will receive $2,000 toward moving costs, and third-place winners will receive a year of Mint Mobile service (15GB/mo).
The grand prize will be delivered as a payment of $36,000. You’ll receive the same amount of money whether you live in Austin or New York, the most expensive housing market in the country.
Imagine the possibilities. Would you upgrade to a larger apartment? Move to a different city? How could $36,000 help turn an apartment or house into a home?
What you could rent with $36,000 in prize money
What you can afford with $36,000 ($3,000 a month) depends on where you decide to live. Let’s say you opt to rent the largest apartment possible while still coming in under $36,000.
You could spend the surplus on expenses like utilities, transportation, or new furniture. Or, you could spend it on getting to know the neighborhood.
For example, if you decide to rent a 3-bedroom apartment in Boston, you’d still be able to afford 229 Fenway Franks. That’s enough iconic hotdogs for you and your movers at least six times over.
Bagels, the lifeblood of NYC, cost about $1.60 a pop. If you rent a 1-bedroom apartment, you should have plenty of money to add to your bagel fund—although you’ll want to budget for some lox spread, too. In Denver, green chili is a local way of life. Even if you rent a 3-bedroom apartment, you might still be able to eat a plate of it for dinner for 261 days of the year.
Rent prices in major metro areas
We calculated this using Zumper’s rent report, identifying the median monthly rent for 1-bedroom, 2-bedroom, and 3-bedroom apartments in ten major cities, and assessing how many bedrooms you could afford for less than $36,000 a year.
As of August 2021, the median rent for a 3-bedroom apartment in New York City is roughly $3,000 a month, so while you might afford two or three beds with $36,000 for the year, it would use all of your winnings. By downsizing to a 1-bedroom, you’d have a little left to spend. In San Francisco, the median rent for a 2-bedroom apartment exceeds $36,000, but you could expect to spend around $33,600 a year on a 1-bedroom—leaving you a surplus of $2,400. In Atlanta, however, the median rent for a 2-bedroom is $2,120 and $2,400 for a 3-bedroom, so you could go big and still have a sizable amount of money leftover to spend however you see fit, like on classic southern fried chicken, for example.
So wherever you decide to go, there’s a good chance the $36,000 will have rent covered—and then some.
Enter for a chance to win and explore the potential of a whole new place.
Methodology
All rent prices sourced from Zumper and our monthly rent report for August 2021. To calculate annual rent, we multiplied median monthly rent for 1-bedroom, 2-bedroom, and 3-bedroom apartments by 12 months. We determined afforded space by selecting the apartments with the most bedrooms whose median annual rent is under the allotted $36,000. To calculate how much food could be afforded, we subtracted the cost of annual median rent for each city from $36,000, and divided the difference by the cost of the associated city’s food item. To source the cost of food, we identified local restaurants and used prices listed on their menus: Burritos La Taqueria; Bagels from Ess-a-bagel; Half-smokes from Ben’s Chili Bowl; Burgers from In-n-Out; Cubanos from Enriqueta’s Sandwich Shop; 1947 Old Fashion Fried Chicken from Paschal’s; 12 oz drip coffee from Seattle Coffee Works; Grandma’s Green Chili Plate from La Loma; Regular Beef Sandwich from Al’s #1 Italian Beef. The price of Fenway Franks hot dogs were pulled from The Boston Globe: “We’re No. 1 — in ticket prices,” 4/6/2015.
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