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. In this post, we look at renter satisfaction with the city they’re currently living in, reasons why they moved, and what qualities they look for when apartment hunting.
City Satisfaction
When asked to rate their city satisfaction on a scale of 1 through 5 where 5 was very satisfied, respondents in Minneapolis seemed to be the happiest with 61% of respondents rating their satisfaction at a 5. This was followed closely by Austin (60%) and Denver (59%). Other notable cities with particularly high city satisfaction included Chicago, Miami, San Diego, and Washington D.C., all with over half of respondents rating their satisfactions at 5’s as well.
On the other end of the spectrum, Detroit (17%) and Baltimore (13%) respondents were the least happy, with the highest number of people to rate their city satisfaction at a 1. Milwaukee (11%) and Phoenix (11%) followed closely behind Baltimore as the next least satisfied.
Reasons For Moving
Overall, the main motivation the majority of respondents moved to their current city was for work related reasons, with San Francisco (63%), Washington D.C. (58%), and Culver City (55%) leading this category.
In terms of cost of living, Las Vegas (29%) had the highest number of respondents to move because they were looking for more affordability. This was followed by Milwaukee (24%) and Jersey City (22%).
The most family oriented cities were Phoenix (28%), Milwaukee (26%), and Columbus (24%), since respondents in these cities moved the most often for their partner or family. On the opposite end of this spectrum, Washington D.C. (5%) and Jersey City (6%) respondents moved the least for family reasons.
The cities with the highest number of natives still living where they grew up were Dallas (7%) Jersey City (6%), Portland (5%), and Fort Lauderdale (5%).
What Qualities People Are Looking For When Moving
When looking for an apartment, the majority of respondents rated affordability as the most important factor. Notably, people in Sacramento (92%), Long Beach (88%), and Berkeley (87%) cared about affordability the most. Since Berkeley has a high population of students, this may play into why the city ranked so high in prioritizing this category. Surprisingly, renters in Miami (50%) and Columbus (63%) cared about affordability the least.
Cities that ranked especially high with people looking for neighborhood safety when apartment hunting included Charlotte (86%), Fort Lauderdale (79%), Chicago (77%), and Culver City (77%).
Unsurprisingly, when it comes to commuting, big cities like Seattle (84%), San Francisco (80%), and Boston (79%) prioritized it the most when considering moving into a new apartment. Meanwhile, more spread out areas that tend to have a higher population of retirees, like Las Vegas and Phoenix, did not rank commute as high.
Houston (18%), Detroit (16%), and Charlotte (16%) respondents took local and state taxes into consideration the most when moving. Since Texas does not have a personal income tax, this could be a very important factor when moving, especially if someone was moving for a new job.
Results were 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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