Renters now outnumber homeowners in many major suburbs
Remote work, high home prices and the rising cost of living are among the factors driving renters from cities as they search for affordable housing options.
Key points:
- A study assessing Census Bureau data found that 203 of the suburbs located around the 20 most populous U.S. metro areas were dominated by renters.
- Five of the 20 metros saw suburban rental growth outpace city rental growth, with Dallas suburbs in particular outpacing city growth by nearly 10%.
- Dallas suburbs Frisco, McKinney and Grand Prairie led the way with the highest net number of new renter households.
If you live in a big city, have you ever considered moving to the suburbs? Many renters now seem to be turning that thought into action.
A recent Point2Homes study found that several suburbs in major U.S. metros experienced a rise in renter population between 2018 and 2023. Five of the 20 largest metros by population had suburban rentership growth that outpaced their main city.
"Nowadays, suburban living is no longer reserved for those with a mortgage," the study noted.
Where renters are outpacing homeowners
The study looked at nearly 1,500 suburbs with populations exceeding 10,000 people and found that 203 of them had renter-majority populations. Excluding the top three spots, where the study noted that high renter populations were attributable to nearby military bases, Los Angeles suburb Cudahy had the highest percentage of renters in its population (88.2%).
Five other suburbs — University in Hillsborough County, Florida; Clarkson, Georgia; Addison, Texas; Harrison, New Jersey; and Webster, Texas — also boasted rentership rates above 80%. Meanwhile, 15 suburbs that previously had homeowner majorities swapped between 2018 and 2023 as their renter populations grew. Most were in East Coast metros like Boston, Baltimore and Miami, though two Chicago suburbs (Blue Island, Illinois, and Gary, Indiana) also made the list.
The appeal of the suburbs
The study attributed the rise in suburban rentership to a number of factors and trends. Chief among these was the pandemic-era rise in remote work, which allowed renters more flexibility in where they chose to live and work.
Cost was another factor, as many young professionals with lower incomes struggled to afford rising costs of living and housing in urban centers. The flexibility to move without high mortgages holding them down could be another reason for the rise in renter households in the suburbs, the study suggested.
Where is suburban rental growth surging?
Of the 20 metros assessed for the report, five saw renter populations grow at a faster pace in the suburbs than in cities. As one of the largest and fastest-growing metros in the U.S., Dallas led the pack with nearly 10% more suburban renter growth than city renter growth.
Behind Dallas were Minneapolis and Boston, which respectively had 3% and 2.1% more suburban renter growth than city renter growth, while Tampa, Florida, and Baltimore rounded out the top five with 0.5% each.
But the story wasn't the same for all large U.S. metros. In Chicago, there was a -8.5% difference between suburban and city renter growth, despite the Chicago area boasting two of the 15 suburbs that flipped to having a majority renter population.
Dallas-area suburbs nab the highest net growth
Of the 104 suburbs that gained more than 1,000 renter households between 2018 and 2023, Dallas metro areas held four of the top five spots amid explosive population growth.
Topping the list was Frisco, Texas, which added over 10,200 new renter households to its population. Nearby McKinney finished a distant second at over 6,000, and Grand Prairie came in fourth at over 5,200. Outside of Texas, only Woodbridge, Virginia, a Washington, D.C., suburb, managed to nab a spot in the top three with over 5,400 new renter households.