City living is notoriously expensive - but you can find the most affordable neighborhoods in 9 major US cities using this interactive map

• Using data from RENTCafé, we found the most expensive and most affordable neighborhoods in nine major US cities.
• The findings show a sharp contrast in rent across different neighborhoods in the same city.
• The average monthly rent in San Francisco's most affordable neighborhood is higher than rent in the most expensive neighborhoods of six cities on this list.

There's arguably nothing as grueling as searching for a new place to live - especially if you're an urban-dwelling renter on a budget.

Rent in the US is up 7% this year, albeit at a slower pace of growth, and rents as a percentage of income are at a historic high of 29.1%. It's no surprise, then, that renters spent a record amount of money on housing in 2017, paying $485.6 billion to landlords, Business Insider's Akin Oyedele previously reported. 

Still, many Americans are struggling to afford housing. New research from the National Low Income Housing Coalition shows that a minimum-wage worker needs 2.5 full-time jobs to afford to rent a one-bedroom apartment in most of the US.

Needless to say, the neighborhood you live in matters when it comes to keeping your housing costs in check.

We recently compared the most expensive and most affordable neighborhoods in nine major US cities using the average monthly rent data for all rentals from RENTCafé.

Not only did our findings highlight extreme differences across different neighborhoods in the same city, they also emphasized just how high rent really is, even in some of the most affordable neighborhoods.

Look at San Francisco, one of the most expensive cities in the country. The average monthly rent in its most expensive neighborhood, Mission Bay, is $4,060. In Hayes Valley, the city's most affordable neighborhood, the average monthly rent is $2,764. That's lower for San Francisco, but higher than the average monthly rent in the most expensive neighborhoods of six cities on this list - Atlanta, Chicago, Houston, Miami, Phoenix, and Washington, DC.

Manhattan has the most expensive neighborhood overall, with average rents in TriBeCa at $5,586. Of all the most affordable neighborhoods, Houston's Greater Fifth Ward is the least expensive with an average rent of $653.

Manhattan has the highest disparity of any city between its most expensive neighborhood, TriBeCa, and most affordable neighborhood, Washington Heights, with a $3,411 difference.

Now, take a look at the most expensive and most affordable neighborhood in each city.