1 in 3 Do Not Believe American Dream Includes Homeownership; 1 in 5 Have No Plans to Ever Buy a Home; Many That Do Are Not Saving

Read the full report here.

Today, we are releasing our 2nd Annual Renter Survey. More than one third of all Americans (110 million) are now renters, the highest percentage in more than 50 years. And, for the vast majority of these people (82% of our respondents), rent is the largest expense every month. Because rent has such a high impact on people’s wallets and day-to-day lives, we set out to better understand the characteristics, perspectives and behaviors of renters in the United States.

You can read the entire report here (and we’ll continue to dig into the data over coming months on this blog), but below are some of the most revealing results.

Answers from 14,284 people from all 50 U.S. states and Washington, D.C. showed us:

One in five people (21% of those surveyed) do not plan to purchase a home in the future, significantly down vs. last year’s one in ten people.

While the vast majority of respondents currently rent their home, only 79% of all respondents want to buy in the future. This is a significant difference from last year’s survey results, where 90% of respondents reported that they planned to buy a home in the future, and just 10% did not.

Finances were the most common reason given for why people are not homeowners. Factors specifically cited included mortgage rates/credit, cost differential, and costs of home repair/maintenance.

Almost half of all respondents (40%) are not currently saving any money out of their monthly income for a down payment. This represents a fairly large gap between the goals to buy a home and behaviors taken to achieve those goals.

Broken down by age, 18-24 year olds are most likely to not be saving regularly from their monthly income.

Men are saving more at a higher rate than women, and while the sample size was smaller, half of all those those who identified as non-binary/third gender are saving nothing.

This of course might be due to the fact that rent is the largest expense every month for 82% of those surveyed. In fact, based on calculating the actual percentage of income respondents spend on rent each month, 54% of people are paying more than they believe they should.

Nearly one in three respondents (31%) do not believe the American Dream involves homeownership.

Yet, unexpectedly, 66% of those who stated that American Dream does not involve homeownership still plan to buy a home in the future.

This might be related to social pressures related to the importance placed on ownership. For example, respondents are more likely to plan on buying a home if their parents are homeowners. That said, the opposite seems to be true with friends and colleagues. Respondents with a minority of friends as homeowners are the most likely to plan to buy a home in the future.

Respondents who live in cities are more likely to enjoy their location  than those who reside in smaller towns or rural areas.

This is directly in line with the trend that has young adults remaining single later into life and spending more time in densely populated cities before settling down in the suburbs.

Read the entire report here, and follow us on Twitter for more findings and analysis.

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Zumper was founded to redesign the rental market for the 21st century. Renters should be able to see the best apartments in a single place, not get scammed, know the price upfront, and lease the second they’re ready. Tools such as accurate local rental market data, up-to-date listings, more accurate search and alerts, and personalized help from our team empowers the renter in one of the most important decisions in their lives: where to live.