State of The Bay Area Renter 2019

We recently completed a national survey of more than 10,000 of our users, and in this rendition, we wanted to focus on our Bay Area renters. View our full report here.

Key Findings

• Less Bay Area renters believed that the American Dream involved homeownership than the national median.
• Bay Area renters were not prioritizing paying off their student loans even as their incomes got higher.
• Bay Area renters lived with roommates more often than the national median and at older ages.
• More Bay Area renters had parents help pay for rent than the national median.
• 2 of 3 Bay Area renters were satisfied with their current apartments.

American Dream & Home Buying Intent

35% of Bay Area renters did not believe that the American Dream involves homeownership, 3 percentage points higher than the 32% national median. Similar to the national trend though, as income rose, less Bay Area renters thought homeownership was part of the American Dream. While the assumption would be that having more money and opportunities to own a home would mean those people would more likely consider homeownership as part of the American Dream, the opposite seems to be true. 2 key factors to this perspective seem to be people wanting to free themselves from the responsibility of homeownership and to live a more flexible lifestyle, which 44% of respondents overall reported as top reasons as to why they rented instead of owned.

Breaking it down by top Bay Area cities, 31% of San Jose renters, 26% of Oakland renters, and 19% of San Francisco renters did not plan to ever buy a home. Meanwhile, the national median for never planning to buy a home was 22%. While more San Jose and Oakland renters reported not planning on buying a home than the national median, San Francisco residents, surprisingly, were more hopeful to own a home even though they live in the most expensive rental market in the country.

Finance & Living Situation

While Bay Area renters had less student loans overall than the national median (31% in the Bay Area vs 38% national), Bay Area renters were not prioritizing paying off the loans even as incomes got higher. About the same proportion of people making between $125,000 – $149,000 had student loans as people who made less than $25,000 (and all income brackets in between)– which is about 35%. The only significant drop was at the $150,000+ salary range where the amount of people with student loans fell to 14%. Perhaps since rent is so expensive in the Bay Area, paying off student loans get pushed to the back burner.

In terms of Bay Area respondents rental relationship with their parents, only 9% of Bay Area renters lived with their parents, 4 points less than the reported 13% national median.

However, more Bay Area renters had their parents help pay for rent than the national median, 8% in the Bay Area vs the 6% national median. Since many Bay Area renters are transplants, most do not have the opportunity to save money by living at home so some, instead, have their parents help with rent in order to afford living in such an expensive area of the country.

Notably, 11% of Bay Area renters making between $75,000 – $99,000 had parents help pay for rent and 14% of Bay Area renters making between $100,000 – $150,000 lived with their parents.

Overall, more Bay Area renters lived with roommates, who were not their Significant Other or parents, than the national median and for longer periods of time as well. 37% of Bay Area renters reported living with roommates while the national median was 24%, a whopping 13 percentage points higher. Breaking down by age group, 26% of 39 – 54 year olds in the Bay Area still lived with roommates, compared to the 18% national median.

While 35% of Bay Area renters overall reported living with their Significant Other, Millennial Bay Area renters (aged 23 – 38) was the highest of all age groups to report this at 40%.

In terms of satisfaction, about 2 of 3 Bay Area renters reported being satisfied with their current apartment.

Relocation

Top Cities Bay Area renters are relocating to outside of the Bay Area in the next year (ranked from most to least)

1. Los Angeles, CA 
2. New York City, NY
3. Seattle, WA 
4. Tucson, AZ 
5. Portland, OR

Top Cities Bay Area renters relocated from in the past year (ranked from most to least)

1. Los Angeles, CA 
2. San Diego, CA 
3. Sacramento, CA 
4. New York City, NY 
5. Philadelphia, PA

Check out this post covered in The Mercury News here.

About Us

Zumper is a small and wildly ambitious startup tackling a problem that affects over 100 million renters across the US and Canada. We believe that renters shouldn’t engage with technology only to search for their next home or apartment rental.

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