Key facts
- RentCafe defines a millionaire renter as a household earning at least $1 million a year that rents an apartment or house.
- RentCafe said New York, San Francisco and Los Angeles remain the biggest hubs for millionaire renters.
- Doug Ressler of Yardi Matrix said Southern metros are gaining millionaire renters largely because of growing job markets.
- Ressler said Western metros such as Riverside and Santa Cruz, California, and Northeastern metros such as Utica and Syracuse, New York, are losing millionaire renters.
- RentCafe listed Phoenix, Boston and Dallas among the fastest-growing metros for millionaire renter households.
RentCafe, an apartment-search website, reported that the number of US households earning at least $1 million a year that rent an apartment or house grew 229% when comparing US Census Bureau estimates for 2020 to 2024 with those for 2016 to 2020. The company said that outpaced 193% growth in millionaire homeowner households over the same period. RentCafe defines a millionaire renter as a household earning at least $1 million a year that rents an apartment or house.
RentCafe found nearly half of millionaire renter households are millennials, though the number of Gen Z millionaire renters has grown fastest since 2020. New York, San Francisco and Los Angeles remain the biggest hubs for millionaire renters, while Southern metros are seeing the fastest growth.
Doug Ressler, manager of business intelligence at Yardi Matrix, the firm behind the RentCafe report, told Business Insider that Western metros such as Riverside and Santa Cruz, California, and Northeastern metros such as Utica and Syracuse, New York, are losing millionaire renters, while Southern metros are gaining them, largely because of growing job markets. Ressler said: "As corporate headquarters relocate to the South, more senior-level executives are moving there. Many rent before they buy, helping drive the region's growth in high-income households and millionaires."
Business Insider noted that companies including Tesla, Oracle, Charles Schwab and Palantir have relocated headquarters or opened offices in Texas and Florida. RentCafe's list of the fastest-growing metros for millionaire renters included Phoenix, where the count rose from 20 households in 2020 to 91 in 2024, and Boston, where it rose from 100 to 481.