Motivated by financial and lifestyle considerations, Bay Area millionaires are increasingly looking to rent homes instead of buying them
East Bay Times, 27/07
https://www.eastbaytimes.com/2025/07/27 ... ers-surge/
The study, in which the apartment rental site examined U.S. census data, defines millionaires as individuals from households that earn over $1 million a year.
While home-owning millionaires still vastly outnumber millionaire renters nationally, the study found the number of millionaire renters increased 204% from 4,512 to 13,692, while millionaire owners increased 169% from 52,966 to 142,320.
According to real estate agents, the trend is driven by three key factors: a decline in the desirability of homeownership, the rise of a class of tech professionals who prefer a nomadic, flexible lifestyle, and financial concerns about the wisdom of losing liquidity by investing in a home.
Overall, Xu said, her millionaire clients can be classified into two groups. There are those who are middle-aged, have families and have acquired their wealth from being early investors in tech stocks that have since skyrocketed in value. The second is composed of recent AI Ph.D. graduates who’ve found themselves among the nouveau riche due to the tremendous pay packages offered by big tech companies.
These two groups, she said, are diametrically opposed in their lifestyle goals and differ fundamentally on the question of whether to buy or rent. The key divider between them, she said, is marital status.
“I think married people would love to have [a house] to welcome their children, so they want to buy a single-family house,” she said. “But if you are a single young guy, then you just want to live in a very downtown area, with quick access to restaurants and clubs.
“The influx of wealthy renters can inflate rental prices in premium neighborhoods, potentially displacing middle-income renters and exacerbating affordability issues,” he said.
Ultimately, Ressler said, the trend was a microcosm of a deeper, intrinsic problem with the housing market in modern-day America.
“If even the wealthy are opting out of ownership, it may signal that the system is increasingly inaccessible to average earners,”
