More than 2.6 million high earners are living in rentals across the US, according to RentCafe. giving rise to a new type of tenant: the millionaire renter.
The number of renter households with incomes of more than $1 million reached a record high of 3,381 in 2020, a RentCafe analysis shows, triple that of 2015. Millennials make up 28% of the category, followed by Gen X at 23%.
“For many Millennials of homebuying age and with above-average incomes, lifestyle renting is a better choice than owning,” the analysis states. “This mindset is mirrored among millionaire Millennials, too, who, unlike their Baby Boomer parents, decide to rent despite having the financial resources to own.” And meanwhile, “as the first generation that redefined and broke away from the American dream of homeownership, Gen Xers initially turned to renting due to the strain brought on by the 2008 housing crisis. Today, they’re following the same lifestyle renting trends as their younger counterparts.”
The most popular jobs among millionaire renters are in management positions (1,653); followed by securities, commodities and financial services sales agents (519); chief executives and legislators (468); software developers (459); and lawyers, judges, magistrates and other judicial workers (421). They are most concentrated on the West and East Coasts, particularly in California, New York and Washington, D.C., and San Francisco in particular posted the biggest uptick in this demographic between 2015 and 2020, with rentals populated by millionaires ticking up by 1,629%. Los Angeles experienced a 361% increase over the same period.
In addition, the number of renters with annual incomes of over $150,000 grew by 82% nationally between 2015 and 2020. Seattle, Portland, and Miami led the pack for this metric.
