A housing stipend is often the largest untaxed line item in a travel nurse contract, and it varies more by location than almost any other part of the package.
Two 13-week assignments with identical hourly rates can leave a nurse hundreds of dollars apart each week once lodging is paid.
This guide ranks the 5 cities with steady contract volume and the highest lodging allowances. It also explains what drives those numbers, and shows how to compare offers without letting a high housing figure mask a weak overall rate.
What a travel nurse housing stipend actually covers
A housing allowance is a fixed payment that an agency provides in place of arranging lodging directly. It reimburses a cost the nurse already carries rather than acting as a bonus, so it is meant to absorb the following:
- Rent or nightly lodging at the assignment location
- Utilities, internet, and renters' insurance at the temporary address
- Parking or transit tied to the temporary residence
- Deposits and short-stay premiums fronted before the first paycheck
The housing line is separate from the meals and incidentals allowance, which some agencies pay separately and others fold into a combined figure that looks larger than it is.
All 5 cities below have a meal rate of $92 per day, so a combined quote can include roughly $2,760 per month that is unrelated to rent.
A tax-free stipend is not automatic either. It stays untaxed only for nurses who maintain a permanent residence back home, a condition most job postings omit and one worth understanding before signing.
How agencies set travel nurse stipend amounts
Stipend ceilings are not set per contract. Agencies anchor offers to the per diem rates published by the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA), which cap federal reimbursement each fiscal year.
Agencies rarely pay the full ceiling. Common practice sets the stipend below the maximum and routes the remainder to taxable wages, resulting in a blended rate that looks strong on paper.
Two offers can carry identical total value while splitting it differently between taxed and untaxed dollars, which changes take-home pay and how income appears on a mortgage application.
Why agencies follow GSA rates when they don't have to
One distinction is worth knowing. GSA rates bind federal travelers, not staffing agencies, so no law requires an agency to pay them.
What the IRS does require is substantiation, meaning proof that a reimbursement covered a real expense. Paying at or just below the federal rate satisfies that requirement without receipts, so most agencies use the schedule by default. That is why the GSA table predicts what an offer will look like, even though nothing compels its use for agencies.
The GSA rates also cover only the continental United States. Alaska, Hawaii, and the territories fall under a separate Department of Defense rate table, which runs higher in several markets.
5 Cities with the highest housing stipends and steady contract volume
Rates run on the federal fiscal year that began October 1, 2025, and 4 of the 5 carry seasonal rate bands, so the allowance quoted depends on that start date.
The ranking below uses the annual average rather than the peak, since a contract start date rarely aligns with the peak season. Monthly equivalents assume a 30-day month.
It is important to note that GSA rates are based on county lines and sometimes city limits. The cities and counties below carry the highest housing stipends among markets with steady contract volume.
1. New York City, New York
All 5 boroughs share one ceiling. The Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan, Queens, and Staten Island are priced identically, which is worth knowing because postings often imply a Manhattan premium that does not exist in the federal schedule.
Autumn carries the top rate at $342 a day from September through December, and the floor drops to $179 in January and February, a swing of nearly $4,900 a month on the same assignment.
Travelers priced out of Manhattan take rooms in Queens, Brooklyn, or northern New Jersey and rely on transit, which removes the parking costs that eat stipends elsewhere. Sublets are common and often informal, so verify one before sending a deposit.
2. Boston and Cambridge, Massachusetts
Boston posts the single highest daily ceiling in this group at $349, and the rate covers Suffolk County plus the city of Cambridge specifically.
The rest of Middlesex County sits far lower at $144 to $178, so a contract in Burlington pays a different allowance than one a few miles away in Cambridge.
Timing matters more here than anywhere else on this list. Area leases turn over on September 1, so available rentals thin out through late August and are gone by the start date. However, fall also offers the highest monthly allowance of $349.
Winter starts are far easier to house, though they draw the lowest allowance of the year. Spring and summer contracts are the practical middle, at $291 from March through August.
3. Santa Monica, California
GSA carves the city limits of Santa Monica out of the Los Angeles rate as its own destination at $273 a day, flat year-round with no seasonal band.
Los Angeles County pays $191. That is a gap of roughly $2,460 a month between a Santa Monica hospital and a facility 8 minutes up Wilshire Boulevard, which makes this the market where checking the exact line item pays off most.
The flat rate of $273 also makes it the most predictable entry here, though the cost of living in Santa Monica is among the highest in the country.
4. San Francisco, California
San Francisco runs $272 from September through December and $259 the rest of the year, the narrowest seasonal band among the 4 markets that shift by season.
One-bedroom rents often match or exceed the allowance, so many nurses end up in Oakland or down the peninsula and commute.
Confirm which county the contract offer is in, since a facility a few miles south falls under San Mateo County at $183. Against the peak San Francisco rate, that is a difference of $89 a day, or roughly $2,670 a month.
5. Charleston, South Carolina
Charleston is the entry most travel nurses do not expect, and it spans 3 counties rather than one, covering Charleston, Berkeley, and Dorchester.
The ceiling peaks at $288 from March through May and never drops below $218, the highest floor of any market here.
Rents run far below those in New York, Boston, and the two California markets, so a Charleston nurse keeps more of the allowance than anyone else on this list.
Where the federal ceilings actually peak
The 5 cities named above lead among housing stipend rates in markets with steady contract volume. However, they are not where the federal ceilings run highest.
That distinction belongs to a handful of small resort counties, most of them served by a single critical access or community hospital, including:
- Park City, Utah, in Summit County, reaches $483 a day from December through March.
- Nantucket, Massachusetts, reaches $471 from June through September.
- Martha's Vineyard, in Dukes County, reaches $462 across the same summer window.
- Key West, Florida, in Monroe County, reaches $436 from February through April.
- Jackson, Wyoming, in Teton County, reaches $420 from June through September.
Aspen at $407 and Vail at $397 sit just behind. Averaged across the full year, Key West leads the entire continental United States at $322 a day, ahead of Park City at $308 and every major metro named above.
The catch is volume and timing. These counties have few beds; openings cluster in a single season, and local inventory is priced for tourists during exactly the months when the ceiling peaks. Nurses who successfully work these markets tend to secure housing through the facility or a returning-traveler network before signing.
Why a large stipend can still mean less money
The most common error is ranking offers by stipend size. A travel nurse's pay package has several moving parts, and housing is one of them.
A $3,000 monthly allowance, where a one-bedroom runs $2,900, nets $100, while a $1,600 allowance, where housing runs $1,000, nets $600. The second offer is worth 6 times as much on that line, despite quoting roughly half the amount.
Compare offers on total weekly value
Before signing a travel nursing contract, reduce every offer to a single comparable figure:
- Multiply the taxable hourly rate by guaranteed hours rather than scheduled hours.
- Add the weekly housing and meal stipends.
- Subtract quoted housing costs for that specific market and those specific dates.
- Subtract travel, licensure, and certification costs that the agency will not reimburse.
- Note the guaranteed-hours clause and the cancellation penalty separately.
What remains is the comparable weekly take-home pay. Running this on 3 offers usually reorders them.
Pay is only one part of an offer worth reading closely. Non-compete and non-solicit clauses can limit where you work next, and they rarely surface in the recruiter conversation.
When company housing is the better call
A nurse who accepts company-provided housing trades upside for certainty. The agency absorbs the lease, the deposit, and the risk that the market is tighter than expected, but the nurse forfeits any savings and most control over location.
Company housing suits a first assignment or a market with limited rentals, like several of the resort counties above.
Keeping your stipend non-taxable
A travel nurse housing stipend is only untaxed when it reimburses a genuine duplicate expense. That requires a travel nurse to have a tax home, meaning a permanent residence with ongoing obligations such as rent or a mortgage that the nurse returns to between contracts.
Two points matter most. First, the 50-mile rule in job postings—which requires you to live more than 50 miles from your assignment to claim a tax home elsewhere—is agency policy, not tax law. Distance alone doesn't determine your tax home.
Second, working 1 metro for over 12 months makes it your tax home, and stipends become taxable there. If you're approaching that threshold, talk to a tax professional who understands travel nurse taxes.
Housing options for a short assignment
Standard leases run 12 months, and nightly accommodation rates destroy an allowance, so most travel nurses choose one of the following options:
- Short-term rentals booked at a monthly discount are widely available, though this can be an expensive choice.
- Extended-stay hotels include utilities and housekeeping, and suit assignments under 10 weeks.
- A mid-term sublet from a local tenant is usually cheapest but also the hardest to source from out of state.
Booking before the contract is signed is the costliest mistake, since a cancellation puts nonrefundable deposits at real risk.
Local shifts without the relocation
Travel nursing is one route to higher rates, but not the only one. Nurses who would rather stay near home can work PRN shifts directly with nearby facilities through the Nursa platform, rather than committing to a 13-week block.
Clinicians on the platform work as 1099 independent contractors, so there is no stipend structure and no tax home question to manage. Learn more about working PRN shifts close to home.
Sources:
- U.S. General Services Administration: Per Diem Rates
- U.S. General Services Administration: Per Diem Frequently Asked Questions
- U.S. General Services Administration: M&IE breakdowns
- U.S. General Services Administration: Per Diem Files
- Internal Revenue Service. Publication 463, Travel, Gift, and Car Expenses
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