Renting beats buying in most major U.S. cities

Where is it cheaper to rent an apartment compared to buying a house?

In nearly all of the major cities in the U.S., according to a new report from Realtor.com.

The most renter-friendly market in June was the Austin metropolitan area, where the median rent is $1,467 a month. That’s $1,683 cheaper than the monthly cost to buy a house there, a difference of about 115 percent, according to the report.

The second market most friendly to renters is Los Angeles. The monthly buy cost there is about 96 percent higher than the median rent of $2,719 per month.

Across the 50 largest cities in the country, it was 53 percent — $908 — more expensive to buy a starter home compared to renting one in June. Pittsburgh was the only top metro where it is more affordable to buy a home. Homeowners in that city are saving $111 a month by purchasing a property.

The median home price in the U.S. hit $396,500 in June — the highest ever. Buyers are slowly beginning to pick up more negotiating power over sellers, as the median sale price is about 6 percent lower than the median asking price.

The markets that favor renters the most are those with high concentrations of tech workers and high-income workers, Realtor.com found.

However, the advantage of renting over buying is winnowing, according to the listings platform. In June 2024, the monthly cost of buying a home was $956 or about 55 percent more expensive than renting.

Across all the largest metro areas in June, the median asking rent came in at $1,711. That was essentially flat from the month before but down 2.1 percent year over year. It was also the 23rd month in a row of year-over-year dips, and was 2.7 percent lower than its peak in August 2022.

All sizes of apartments registered drops in their median rents year over year: studios were down by 2.3 percent; one-bedrooms by 2.6 percent; and two-bedrooms by 2.1 percent.