HOUSTON – (By Dale King, Realty News Report) – High costs associated with searching for and purchasing a home of their own continue to impede renters attempting to join the ranks of American homeowners.
And while this impediment continues, the housing market clock keeps ticking. Renters who haven’t made a move may find they’ve spent months, a year or several years living in their same leased domicile – waiting for the right time to relocate.
A survey by real estate brokerage Redfin says renters moved less frequently in 2023 than they did 10 to 20 years earlier in all of the 50 most populous U.S. metros analyzed for a just-released report. The elevated price of moving or paying rental brokers in cities like New York has discouraged renters from relocating with more regularity, says the analysis.
While the majority of renters move within five years— ranging from the 25.6 percent who are in and out in less than a year to the 40.8 percent who spend one to four years in their rental unit before vacating — the soaring cost of acquiring a home has pushed many leaseholders to stay put longer than in most previous years.
Redfin’s report says that in 2023, a third (33.6 percent) of U.S. renters had lived in the same home for at least five years, up from 28.4 percent in 2013. Nearly one in six (17 percent) of renters had occupied the same property from five to nine years in 2023 compared to 14.4 percent a decade earlier. Practically the same percentage (16.6 percent) stayed in the same leased unit for 10-plus years compared to 13.9 percent 10 years earlier.
More than a third (34.1 percent) of baby boomers have lived in the same home for at least 10 years, the most of any generation, while 56 percent have called the same space “home” for at least five years.
At the other end of the age spectrum, more than half of Gen Z renters (52.4 percent) had lived in their home for less than a year in 2023 — the highest share among all generations surveyed.
Information contained in the report is from a Redfin analysis of renter data taken from the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey conducted in 2023 — the most recent year for which figures are available.
Traits of Texas Renters
The brokerage firm’s examination of three major Texas metros that fall within the 50 most populated U.S. urban centers said two generally followed the report’s overall drift.
In 2023, stats for Houston said nearly 1 in 10 renters (9.8 percent) remained in their leased unit for more than 10 years, two percent more than the 8.0 percent tally from 2013. The numbers for Dallas were similar: 8.9 percent remained in their apartments for a decade-plus in 2023 compared to 7.2 percent in 2013.
But Austin bucked the trend. Only 6 percent of renters stayed in their leased-out domiciles for more than 10 years in 2023, up a nudge from 5.9 percent a decade before. The state capital also broke the mold on the rapid in-and-out category. Redfin said more than a third — 37.8 percent — of folks who inhabited rental units departed in less than a year – down from the 40.8 percent tallied in 2013, says the report.
“Monthly mortgage payments have nearly tripled over the past decade, preventing many renters from being able to buy a home,” said Redfin Senior Economist Sheharyar Bokhari.
“Rents spiked during the pandemic, but have stayed relatively flat over the past two years as home prices and mortgage rates continued to climb. That has encouraged renters to stay in the same home, where they are less likely to face major rent increases.”
The recent construction boom has provided renters with a measure of security if their financial situation continues to be short of buying a home or supporting a mortgage. “The record number of new apartments hitting the market keeping rents down and set 2025 up as a renter’s market where more Americans will choose to rent, or remain as renters,” states the Redfin analysis.
Highlights of the report follow. The data applies to the 50 most populated U.S. metros:
- Renters move most often in metros that became popular during the pandemic, including Denver, where 38 percent stayed put for 12 months or less in 2023. That’s the highest share of the 50 most populated metros. Next came Austin (37.8 percent) and Salt Lake City (36.9 percent).
- Renters stay put longest in metros where the cost of buying a home is out of reach for many, led by New York, where just 14.9 percent of leaseholders moved in 12 months or less in 2023. Next came Los Angeles (16.7 percent) and Riverside, Calif. (18.9 percent).
- At least one in five renters stayed in the same domicile for more than 10 years in five of the top 50 metros: New York (32.6 percent), Los Angeles (27.8 percent), San Francisco (26.4 percent), Providence (20.9 percent) and Riverside, Calif. (20 percent).
- Fewer than one in 10 renters remained within the same walls for more than 10 years in 11 of the top 50 metros, led by Austin (6 percent), Raleigh, N.C. (8.2 percent), Orlando (8.2 percent), Jacksonville and Denver (both 8.8 percent).
Jan. 13, 2025 Realty News Report Copyright 2025
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File: Staying Put: Renters Moving Infrequently