Zillow Report: U.S. Rental Demand Up 19.2% Year Over Year, Led by Single-Family Rentals; San Jose Jumps 82.5%
SEATTLE — Rental demand in the United States rose 19.2% from a year earlier, according to Zillow's latest Rental Market Report released on October 15, as measured by the Zillow Observed Renter Demand Index (ZORDI). Zillow said housing demand has not disappeared as borrowing costs stay elevated; instead, would-be buyers are renting for longer.
The typical U.S. rent was $1,932 a month in September, up 2.7% year over year, while the typical monthly payment for a new home buyer rose 5% to $3,037 — nearly twice the pace of rent growth. The payment figure assumes 10% down and a 30-year fixed-rate loan and includes principal, interest, property taxes and insurance. Demand for single-family rentals rose 21.6%, more than double the 10.1% increase for multifamily rentals. A typical single-family rental costs $2,266 a month, $771 less than a new buyer's monthly payment.
By metro area, rental demand rose the most in San Jose, up 82.5% year over year, followed by San Francisco (66.9%), Austin (49.3%), Miami (48.9%) and Phoenix (43.0%). In Southern California, demand rose 25.9% in Los Angeles, 26.9% in Riverside and 29.1% in San Diego. Rent growth was also fastest in the Bay Area, up 11.8% in San Francisco and 8.3% in San Jose, while it was more moderate in Austin (0.7%), Miami (1.8%) and Phoenix (1.0%), where Zillow said new construction has kept supply in step with demand. Demand fell year over year in Louisville (-6.2%), Baltimore (-6.1%), Washington, D.C. (-5.6%) and Cleveland (-5.5%).
On affordability, the median household spends 26.3% of its income on a new rental, essentially unchanged from a year ago, compared with 41.3% for a new homeowner. A household needs an income of $77,278 to afford a typical rental, versus $121,496 to afford a typical home, a gap of more than $44,000. Kara Ng, a senior economist at Zillow, said elevated mortgage rates have pushed home shoppers toward rentals, and described the rise of deliberate renters who bank the difference between a buyer's monthly payment and rent. Zillow also publishes a metro-level rent-versus-buy breakdown of how many years a household would need to own a home before buying comes out ahead.
Source: GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：加州圣何塞中城一栋出租公寓楼及其租赁中心外景；圣何塞是Zillow本次报告中租赁需求同比涨幅最大的都市区（涨82.5%）。图片来源：Wikimedia Commons，Cristiano Tomás 摄于2021年，CC BY-SA 4.0 授权 / Photo: A rental apartment building and its leasing center in Midtown San Jose, California; San Jose posted the largest year-over-year rise in rental demand in Zillow's report, up 82.5%. Source: Wikimedia Commons, by Cristiano Tomás, 2021, CC BY-SA 4.0.
