More of America’s highest-income households are choosing not to turn their purchasing power into homeownership in a rental market that offers them more flexibility, mobility, and choice.
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that → choose → flexibility
The number of U.S. households earning at least $1 million a year while renting the home they live in rose 229% between 2020 and 2024, climbing to about 18,400 households, according to a new RentCafe analysis of U.S. Census Bureau data.
uncertain
they → earn → data
“Standard measures treat renting as a fallback for people who can’t buy.
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who → treat → people
Here, the top of the income distribution may increasingly be renting by choice,” explains Realtor.com senior economist Hannah Jones.
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Jones → rent → choice
And overwhelmingly, young high-income households are the ones leveraging that choice.
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households → leverage → choice
Nearly half (49%) of millionaire renters are Millennials, whose numbers surged 392% between 2020 and 2024.
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numbers → surge → 2020
While Gen Z accounts for just 2% of the market, its millionaire renter population grew 46-fold over the same period—the fastest of any generation.
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population → account → generation
Millionaire homeowner households also grew rapidly over the same period, rising 193%.
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households → grow → period
Renters still make up only a small share of $1 million-income households, but their share rose from 8% to just under 9%, according to Jones.
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share → make → Jones
It suggests that the trend isn’t a rejection of homeownership but a generational complication of it.
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trend → suggest → it
These younger millionaires came of age in a housing market dominated by the ultralow mortgage rate homebuying boom and the steep run-up in home prices and borrowing costs that followed.
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that → come → prices
And for many, it would seem, that made buying less of an obvious next step—even once they could afford it.
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they → seem → it
Why wealthy households are choosing to rent
Some of the dramatic growth comes down to math, according to Jones.
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Some → choose → Jones
“Part of the gap is a base effect, since renters started from far fewer households; it is possible to see more growth,” she explains.
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she → start → growth
The total number of households earning at least $1 million nearly tripled, from about 70,000 to 208,000, and owners accounted for the overwhelming majority of that increase.
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owners → earn → increase
In absolute terms, renter households grew by roughly 12,800, compared with about 125,000 additional millionaire homeowners.
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households → grow → homeowners
Jones also notes that the $1 million threshold is nominal rather than adjusted for inflation, meaning some of the growth reflects more households crossing a fixed income benchmark over time.
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some → note → time
Even so, the math still doesn’t explain why high earners might find renting attractive in the first place.
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renting → explain → place
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Report → start → news
On that front, the occupational makeup of millionaire renters offers some clues.
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makeup → offer → clues
RentCafe’s data says many work as chief executives, technology professionals, and financial managers—high-paying careers that can come with greater geographic mobility.
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that → say → mobility
And renting gives these professionals something ownership doesn’t: the ability to easily move.
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ownership → give → something
About 21.6% of people living in renter-occupied households changed residences in 2024, compared with 6.2% of those living in owner-occupied households, according to U.S. Census Bureau data.
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% → live → data
Renters were also roughly three times as likely to have moved from another state.
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Renters → move → state
That mobility can carry economic value of its own, particularly early in a career, when changing jobs—and sometimes cities—can open the door to better opportunities.
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changing → carry → opportunities
Workers in their first seven years of employment got roughly 36% to 42% of their cumulative earnings growth from moves between employers, according to a 2021 study using U.S. Census Bureau employer-employee data.
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Workers → get → data
RentCafe says this dynamic is particularly visible in Houston, where affluent newcomers—including executives, professional athletes, and entertainers—often rent after relocating before deciding whether to buy.
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newcomers → say → executives
Homeowners, meanwhile, are getting hit with more incentives to stay put.
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Homeowners → hit → incentives
Federal Reserve researchers estimate that mortgage rate lock-in explained 44% of the decline in mortgage-borrower mobility from 2021 to 2022.
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in → estimate → 2022
The rate cycle also helps explain why millionaire renting survived a period that initially seemed tailor-made for buying.
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that → help → buying
“The rate environment worked both for and against these households,” Jones says.
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Jones → work → households
Ultralow rates made borrowing cheap early in the period, but inventory was scarce.
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inventory → make → period
“By the time inventory started to recover, both prices and rates were higher, making buying less attractive,” she adds.
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she → start → time
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