We recently released our Annual Renter Survey for 2017, which polled more than 14 thousand people in the United States. Nationally, there were some surprising highlights, but a deeper look into the data reveals even more at the city-level.
While nationally more than 1 in 5 (or 21%) of all those surveyed do not plant to buy a home in the future, those in Phoenix, AZ, Detroit, MI and Portland, OR top the cities who do not plan to buy in the future. Roughly a third of all those surveyed in each city do not plan to buy a home in the future.
On the other end of the spectrum, those in Ft. Lauderdale, FL, Nashville, TN and Berkeley and San Jose, CA all overwhelmingly plan to buy in the future.
When you look at the people who do plan to buy a home in the future, however, many are not saving towards that goal.
In St. Louis, MO (which ranked high among cities with residents who never plan to buy), more than half who do plan to buy in the future are not saving any money. Las Vegas, NV, Milwaukee, WI and Dallas, TX also were among the cities with the highest rate of residents not saving money towards a downpayment. Notably, there is a lot of overlap in the cities which rank highest in not wanting to buy a home and cities where even those that want to buy, are not saving towards that goal.
This might be correlated to the increasing belief among Americans that the American Dream does not necessarily include homeownership. Nationally, 31% of all surveyed do not believe the American Dream involves homeownership. On a local level, some cities are closer to 50%.
Minneapolis ranks highest in not believing the American Dream involves homeownership, followed closely by Columbus, OH, Dallas, TX, and Portland, OR.
Residents in some cities however believe homeownership is part of the american dream, at a far higher rate than the national average. There’s significant overlap here with the communities who plan to buy a home in the future, with Fort Lauderdale topping both lists, and San Jose, CA coming in close behind.
Note: The above data was pulled from Zumper’s 2017 Annual Renter Survey for cities with a significant number of respondents based on supplied zip codes. Cities with low levels of responses were excluded to ensure data was representative. You can read the full report here: /blog/uploads/2017/09/ZumperAnnualRenterSurvey2017.pdf.
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