Housing

The Rise of the Millionaire Renters

Affluent households have started to make up a significant share of renters in major US cities. Will the trend hold?

One World Trade Center building in front of residential homes in Jersey City, New Jersey, in 2021. 

Photographer: Gabby Jones/Bloomberg

Of the millionaires living in Jersey City back in 2015, none of them were renters. And why would they be?

The average price for a single-family house in a Jersey City neighborhood like Bergen-Lafayette, where 19th-century Victorians intermingle with traditional brownstones just a stone’s throw from Liberty State Park and its stirring views of the Manhattan skyline, was about $230,000 back then — deeply affordable for the rich, even for a house that needed a lot of work.