Renting on the Rise, With Consequences for Neighborhoods

A higher share of Americans are renters than at any point in decades. Neighborhoods all over the country, especially in downtowns, have many more renters than they did in 2010.

1 minute read

October 14, 2022, 7:00 AM PDT

By James Brasuell @CasualBrasuell


Brick apartment building with For Rent sign

Spiroview Inc / Apartments for rent

Recent analysis by RentCafe sheds light on how the growing share of renters in the U.S. population—a trend reflected in national statistics for years now—is transforming neighborhoods.

According to this analysis which uses the latest data from the U.S. Census Bureau, 101 U.S. zip codes switched to majority renter in the past decade. An article by Andrea Neculae for RentCafe provides more details on the analysis, including infographics to reflect the trends and locate the parts of the country with most new majority renter neighborhoods. 

Philadelphia has the most new majority renter zip codes of any U.S. city, with seven, followed by Memphis and Houston, each with six. The analysis also ranked zip codes by the percentage of change in the number of renters. The 43240 zip code in Columbus, Ohio leads the list with a 157 percent change, followed by 60606 in Chicago and 78256 in San Antonio, with 151 percent and 132 percent, respectively.

The analysis notes that downtown areas, in particular, became more popular for young renters over the past decade—as reflected in the zip codes with the largest changes in renter populations since 2010.

Tuesday, October 11, 2022 in RentCafé

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