Fewer New Yorkers Own Homes As Number Renting Grows, Figures Show

NEW YORK, NY — The number of renters in New York City grew more than 5.4 million in 2016 as the city lost roughly 100,000 homeowners over the last decade, U.S. Census data shows. Renters now make up nearly two thirds — 65.1 percent — of the city's population, up from 60.6 percent in 2006, according to a report the real estate website RentCafe published Thursday.

The number of homeowners in the city shrunk by 3.8 percent to about 2.9 million over the same 10-year period, meaning roughly 34.9 percent of New Yorkers are homeowners, data show.

The growth in New York's renter population was the slowest among the nation's 100 biggest cities, mostly because the population was already so big, says RentCafe's report, which is based on U.S. Census numbers. But the city still has the most renters of any city by far, with more than twice as many as Los Angeles' 2.3 million.

The continued growth reflects a national trend, according to RentCafe's analysis. Some 97 of the country's 100 largest cities added more renters than homeowners over the last decade. In 22 of those cities, renters became the majority for the first time.

Renter populations have stayed high in the nation's "most coveted" real estate markets, RentCafe says, including New York, Miami, Jersey City and Newark, N.J. Those are the only four cities where renters make up two thirds or more of the total population.

Renting is most popular in Newark and Jersey City, where renters account for 74.3 percent and 70.4 percent of the population, respectively, census figures show.

Outside the city, Buffalo was one of 12 cities where the total population decreased but the proportion of renters increased. The upstate city now has nearly 145,000 renters compared with about 103,000 homeowners. Renters account for 58.5 percent of the population there, up 9.7 percentage points from 2006.

Renters have long dominated in New York City, where the median sales price of a home is about $1.4 million but the median income is just $55,000, according to figures from the real estate website Trulia and the census.

The growth in the number of renters nationally outpaced growth in homeownership from 2007 to 2015, as the 2008 recession made buying a home more difficult economically, RentCafe says. But ownership has grown faster recently and the trends are now starting to match those before the recession.

(Lead image by Jo Wiggijo via Pixabay)