Millionaire renters in Boston metro area doubled since 2020

Data: RentCafe; Note: Ranking includes cities with at least 100 renter households with incomes of more than $1 million; Chart: Axios Visuals

Hundreds of millionaires in the Boston metro area are choosing to rent, a new report says.

Why it matters: More people with extra cash are renting at a time when the state faces a historic crisis due in part to the limited housing stock.

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Driving the news: The number of millionaires renting in the region more than doubled between 2020 and 2022 to nearly 500 millionaire renters.

• The number is small compared to New York City, which had nearly 5,600 renters in 2022, but the Boston metro area ranked seventh in the nation for the number of millionaire renter households.

What they're saying: "Even though they're still a small group, the increasing number of millionaire renters indicates a shift in how well-off people approach lifestyle and investment decisions nowadays," RentCafe analyst Veronica Grecu tells Axios' Brianna Crane.

Zoom in: Renting is the better deal in nearly every U.S. city right now.

• Instead of dumping their capital into homeownership, rich renters are growing wealth by putting their money into "stocks, bonds, their own businesses, or other assets," Grecu says.
• "By renting — especially in top-notch neighborhoods — they can stay nimble, ready to move or shift their investments as the market changes."

The big picture: The number of millionaire renters across the U.S. nearly tripled from 2020 to 2022 to more than 15,000, per RentCafe data.

• Grecu predicts that number will continue to grow in the near-term, especially in high-cost cities.

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