Robyn Beck / AFP / Getty Images
A decade after the Great Recession, homeownership is on the rise in the U.S. But for many residents of the country’s largest cities, renting is still the reality.
The share of people renting their home, rather than owning it, increased in all 50 of the largest cities in the country between 2006 and 2016, according to a new report from real-estate website ZG, +4.05% Renter households now represent the majority in 29 of those 50 cities — back in 2006 at the start of the housing crisis, only 16 had renter-household majorities.
Overall, 37% of households nationwide are renters in the U.S. as of 2016 versus 33% back in 2006 and 34% in 2000. Memphis, Tenn., experienced the most pronounced growth in the share of its population that rents, with an 11 percentage-point increase. Other cities whose residents notably shifted from buying to renting include Honolulu, Las Vegas, Mesa, Ariz., and Atlanta.
Meanwhile, Miami has the greatest share of renter households of any major city in the country, with nearly 70% of its households renting their homes. New York was next at 68%, followed by Boston (65%), Los Angeles (64%) and Long Beach, Calif. (62%). Among the country’s largest cities, Virginia Beach, Va., had the smallest share of renter households at 38%, followed by Albuquerque, N.M., (40%) and Mesa, Ariz. (41%).
In the immediate wake of the recession, the uptick in renter households was the result of millions of Americans being foreclosed upon and would-be home buyers being denied access thanks to far more restrictive mortgage-lending standards. And while the homeownership rate has notably begun to pick up, other factors including rising prices are expected to cause many households to continue to choose renting over homeownership, Zillow senior economist Aaron Terrazas said in the report.
“Some of this shift is attributable to lifestyle choices, including young adults delaying marriage and starting families, and a strong preference for living in urban cores where renting is often more convenient and financially feasible,” Terrazas said. “Some is also driven by economic necessity — quickly rising home values can make it difficult for some to enter the market to begin with — and many previously foreclosed-upon families remain unable to purchase again.”
| City | Renter rate in 2000 | Renter rate in 2006 | Renter rate in 2016 |
| 33.8% | 32.70% | 36.9% | |
| New York, N.Y. | 69.8% | 65.6% | 68% |
| Los Angeles, Calif. | 61.4% | 60% | 64.1% |
| Chicago, Ill. | 56.2% | 50.7% | 56.3% |
| Houston, Texas | 54.2% | 53.5% | 56.9% |
| Philadelphia, Penn. | 40.7% | 41.8% | 47.9% |
| Phoenix, Ariz. | 39.3% | 39.4% | 47% |
| Las Vegas, Nevada | 40.9% | 38.2% | 47.3% |
| San Antonio, Texas | 41.9% | 39.2% | 46.4% |
| San Diego, Calif. | 50.5% | 49.5% | 54.3% |
| Dallas, Texas | 56.8% | 53.3% | 59.2% |
| San Jose, Calif. | 38.2% | 38.3% | 43.1% |
| Jacksonville, Fla. | 36.8% | 37% | 43.4% |
| San Francisco, Calif. | 65% | 60.7% | 62.1% |
| Indianapolis, Ind. | 41.3% | 40.6% | 47.6% |
| Austin, Texas | 55.1% | 52.7% | 55.1% |
| Fort Worth, Texas | 44.1% | 39.5% | 42.9% |
| Columbus, Ohio | 50.9% | 49.5% | 56% |
| Memphis, Tenn. | 44.1% | 45.1% | 56.1% |
| Charlotte, N.C. | 42.5% | 39.6% | 47.8% |
| El Paso, Texas | 38.6% | 38.7% | 42.1% |
| Boston, Mass. | 67.8% | 61.4% | 65% |
| Seattle, Wash. | 51.6% | 48.1% | 53.9% |
| Baltimore, Md. | 49.7% | 49.3% | 54.3% |
| Denver, Colo. | 47.5% | 44.4% | 50% |
| Washington, D.C. | 59.2% | 54.2% | 60.8% |
| Nashville, Tenn. | 22.1% | 40.3% | 47% |
| Milwaukee, Wis. | 54.7% | 52.1% | 59.2% |
| Tucson, Ariz. | 46.5% | 45.1% | 49.5% |
| Portland, Ore. | 44.2% | 42.9% | 48% |
| Oklahoma City, Okla. | 40.5% | 38% | 40.8% |
| Omaha, Neb. | 40.4% | 41% | 43.4% |
| Albuquerque, N.M. | 39.6% | 38.7% | 39.6% |
| Fresno, Calif. | 49.3% | 50.2% | 53.5% |
| Sacramento, Calif. | 49.9% | 48% | 52.4% |
| Mesa, Ariz. | 33.5% | 32.2% | 40.7% |
| Long Beach, Calif. | 58.9% | 56.6% | 62.3% |
| Kansas City, Mo. | 42.3% | 40.6% | 47% |
| Virginia Beach, Va. | 34.4% | 30.4% | 37.8% |
| Colorado Springs, Colo. | 39.2% | 35.6% | 42.5% |
| Atlanta, Ga. | 56.3% | 50.4% | 58.7% |
| Miami, Fla. | 65.1% | 63.9% | 69.9% |
| Oakland, Calif. | 58.6% | 56.3% | 61.7% |
| Tulsa, Okla. | 44.4% | 45.5% | 50.7% |
| Cleveland, Ohio | 51.5% | 50.5% | 58.2% |
| Honolulu, Hawaii | 53.1% | 49.2% | 58.3% |
| Minneapolis, Minn. | N/A | 45.9% | 53.3% |
| Baton Rouge, La. | 47.6% | 47.2% | 53.2% |
| New Orleans, La. | 53.5% | 49.3% | 53.7% |
| Arlington, Texas | 45.3% | 41.9% | 44.5% |
| Raleigh, N.C. | 48.4% | 46.5% | 50.9% |
Jacob Passy is a personal-finance reporter for MarketWatch and is based in New York.
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