A growing number of renters are putting home purchase plans on hold and renting for longer, according to a recent Redfin analysis and data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2023 survey which shows that 33.6% of renters have lived in their current home at least five years, up from 28.4% in the previous decade.
In particular, members of the baby boomer generation are the most stationary, with over a third (34.1%) renting the same home for 10 years or more, and 56% renting the same residence for at least five years. Gen Z, perhaps not surprisingly, had the shortest rental tenure, with more than half (52.4%) reporting they’d been in their homes less than a year.
Across the country, cities that saw the greatest influx of pandemic renters also experienced greater rental movement in 2023. Denver, Colo., Austin, Texas, and Salt Lake City, Utah, saw 38%, 37.8%, and 36.9% of renters in the same home for less than 12 months, respectively.
In cities with notoriously high home ownership costs—New York, N.Y., Los Angeles, Calif., and Riverside, Calif.—renters were far more likely to stay put. In New York, just 14.9% of renters had moved within the last twelve months. Los Angeles and Riverside saw only 16.7% and 18.9% movement, respectively.
Consistently high interest rates, as well as a lack of affordable and available homes, has kept home ownership well out of reach for droves of potential buyers. Since early 2024, many renters have felt that home ownership is out of the question.
Sheharyar Bokhari, Senior Economist at Redfin, noted, “Monthly mortgage payments have nearly tripled over the past decade, preventing many renters from being able to buy a home… Rents spiked during the pandemic, but have stayed relatively flat over the past two years as home prices and mortgage rates continued to climb. That has encouraged renters to stay in the same home, where they are less likely to face major rent increases.”
With mortgage rates and home prices showing no apparent signs of relenting as the new year begins, odds are good that renters across the country will choose to maintain the status quo for the foreseeable future.
