There were 45.2 million renter households in America during the second quarter, a new record as renter households grew three times faster than homeowner households, according to Redfin.
Based on Redfin analysis of U.S. Census Bureau figures dating back to 1994, renter households expanded by 1.9% year over year (a gain of roughly 855,000 households) in the second quarter, per Redfin’s records. Households who owned their homes, on the other hand, grew 0.6% year over year to 86.3 million — also a new all-time high, although that annual pace was the slowest since 2019.
The counts of both homeowner and renter households are at all-time highs because the population of the U.S. is also at a peak and continues to grow. But households headed by renters have now formed faster than households headed by homeowners for three straight quarters. Renter household growth peaked in 2024’s first quarter at 2.8%, the largest yearly jump since 2015.
Renter households have far outpaced homeowners in part because the costs of homebuying have shot up at a much faster pace than rents. Consider, for example, that the median monthly mortgage payment rose approximately 5% year over year in June, compared to an uptick of just 1% for median apartment asking rents, according to Redfin. June asking rents sat at 23% above pre-pandemic levels, while mortgage payments were at an astounding 90% above where they were pre-pandemic.
Rental payment growth has been kept somewhat in check by an active multifamily construction pipeline that has been delivering new apartment space at a blistering clip. In the second quarter, new multifamily housing was added at an annualized rate of 563,000 units. That’s the second fastest pace since 1994, trailing only the preceding quarter.
“The cost of both renting and buying a home has skyrocketed in recent years, but the affordability crunch isn’t quite as severe in the rental market,” said Sheharyar Bokhari, senior economist at Redfin. “That’s because America has been building a lot of apartments to keep pace with robust demand from renters.”
“The country’s leaders should heed this lesson when considering how to improve affordability in the homebuying market: When there’s more housing to go around, prices don’t increase as fast.”
