【World Property Journal】U.S. Becomes a Renter Nation, Spent $4.5 Trillion on Housing Rents in Last Decade

Based on new Zillow research, U.S. renters spent a cumulative $4.5 trillion on rent during the 2010s. That's more than the GDP of Germany or the combined market values of Apple, Microsoft, Amazon and Alphabet.
 
In 2019 alone, renters spent more than $512 billion on housing - the most of any year in this decade. Altogether, U.S. renters spent 2.9% more on rent this year than they did in 2018 and 46.5% more than in 2009 ($349.8 billion).
 
The current median rent is $1,600 per month, up 2.3% from a year ago. Rent prices have been on the rise since 2012, creating an affordability crunch that has led many renters to make sacrifices in order to pay their rent, including living with roommates longer, or reducing their savings for a down payment. Nationally, rent prices grew the fastest in June 2015, when the U.S. median rent rose 6.5% annually.
 
However, the rental market stabilized toward the end of the decade - annual rent growth slowed to less than 1% in late 2017 before ticking back up. By the end of the year 2020, Zillow predicts rent growth will slow slightly once more, stabilizing in line with wage growth and inflation at a rate just under 2% annually.

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