Get Cozy: Walls Are Closing in on Today's Renters

SEATTLE, April 11, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- It's not just your imagination; renters are getting less bang for their buck these days. U.S. renters have to squeeze into homes 15 percent smaller than they would have five years ago to keep their monthly payment the same, according to a new HotPads® analysis.

That's 225 square feet less space – equivalent to losing a 14-by-16-foot living room, or nearly two 10-by-12-foot bedrooms.

The median U.S. rent is currently $1,530 and the median size of a rental unit is 1,260 square feet. In 2014, that same $1,530 monthly rent payment would have on average secured a rental that was 1,485 square feet, providing 225 square feet of extra space.

Rent affordability has improved marginally over the same time period – the share of income spent on rent fell from 29.2 percent in early 2014 to 27.7 percent in late 2018, according to Zillow's rent affordability data. But while incomes have grown fast enough to allow the typical renter to better afford their rent payment, the space available to them at that price has decreased over the past five years.

"Cities across the country have seen incredible rent growth in the past five years while new construction has gotten smaller, leading renters to look for units with less and less space to stay within their budgets," said HotPads Economist Joshua Clark. "With space at such a premium, it's no wonder that minimalism and decluttering practices made popular by Marie Kondo have grown such a large following among today's renters. Taking advantage of amenities offered in the common areas of many newer buildings can help ease these space constraints – for example, entertaining guests on the rooftop deck or exercising in a fitness center if space is tight in your bedroom or living room."

This shrinking effect was the most pronounced in Sacramento, San Francisco and San Jose, Calif., among the 50 largest rental markets in the country – these markets also experienced the biggest rent price appreciation over the past five years. A renter paying the current median rent payment in each of these markets could have found a unit with at least 475 square feet more space in 2014, more than the size of a typical studio apartmentⁱ.

Typical renters in Baltimore, Virginia Beach, Washington, D.C., and Oklahoma City would have had to downsize the least. Renters in these areas lost less than 100 square feet, little more than the size of a small kitchenⁱⁱ.

A previous HotPads analysis found that renters in Las Vegas and Raleigh can expect to get the most space for their money, while Denver and Boston renters were at the bottom of that list. Price per square foot typically tracks closely with rent prices, which experienced years of growth after the economic recovery and are once again on the rise, according to the HotPads Q1 2019 Rent Report.

HotPads is a Zillow® Group-owned apartment and home search platform for renters in urban areas across the United States. For more information on the U.S. rental market, visit HotPads.com.

HotPads
HotPads is an efficient rental search platform for urban areas across the United States, with features designed for competitive markets such as map-based search, real-time notifications and detailed information on landlords and property managers that help renters spend less time searching and more time feeling excited about their next home.

Launched in 2005, HotPads is based in San Francisco and is owned and operated by Zillow Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:Z and ZG).

HotPads is a registered trademark of Zillow, Inc.

ⁱ Source: https://www.yardimatrix.com/About-Us/Our-Methods/Terminology
ⁱⁱ Source: https://www.homeadvisor.com/cost/kitchens/remodel-a-kitchen/#small
ⁱⁱⁱ Calculated using the 2019 median rent price and 2014 price per square foot in each area

SOURCE HotPads

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