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Greater Boston is among the many U.S. metropolitan areas that have seen wealthy renters take up a bigger piece of the rental-market in recent years.
According to Redfin’s analysis of census, MLS and county records data from 2019 to 2023, the region saw its share of renters whose incomes are in the top 20 percent of the market, or an annual income of at least $219,950, increase by 40 basis points. That puts the region just a head of the nationwide rate of increase, and 21st in the nation.
These wealthy renters now make up 7.5 percent of Greater Boston’s renter households, Redfin economists said.
“Many affluent Americans are choosing leases over mortgages because the cost of buying a home has jumped significantly more than the cost of renting one in recent years,” Redfin Senior Economist Elijah de la Campa said in a statement. “With mortgage rates near 7%, renting frees up cash for other investments that may be more lucrative than real estate.”
Unlike many Southern metro areas, Boston has seen rents and home prices continue to trend upwards despite the record number of apartment deliveries nationwide in recent years. Redfin reports that Greater Boston rents have increased by 27.1 percent from 2019-2023, while Yardi Matrix data reported last week shows rents in professionally-managed complexes rose at twice the national average last year, while occupancy hit 96.5 percent, the third-highest of the nation’s 30 biggest metro areas.
But according to data from The Warren Group, the publisher of Banker & Tradesman, the median single-family home price in Greater Boston was $750,000 in January of 2025, up 8.7 percent in one year, alone.
“For a lot of folks, renting is all about opportunity. The U.S. economy and job market are in flux, and people want to be able to move and flow as things change,” Redfin Premier real estate agent Juan Castro said in a statement. “I have friends who sold their home in favor of renting because they want the flexibility to move fast if their dream job surfaces in another state. They believe many employers won’t offer remote work moving forward, and don’t want to be stuck with a home that may be difficult to sell quickly.”
Elsewhere in New England, Hartford, Connecticut actually saw its share of “rich renters” decrease. From 2019 to 2023, the share of renters that are in the top 20 percent of income in the market fell by 30 basis points. While the share of wealthy renters has decreased, rents have increased by 29.3 percent from 2019 to 2023.
