Jan. 4, 2017 By Hannah Wulkan
High-income renters are flooding into Queens, according to a recent study.
Wealthy residents of New York City have shown a preference for renting rather than owning homes over the last decade, a new report from RentCafe shows, with the number of affluent renters more than tripling in Queens over the last decade.
After Brooklyn, Queens has seen the second largest influx of wealthy renters over the last 10 years by percentage.
Queens saw a jump in high-income renters from 8,486 households to 29,473 households, or 247 percent, over the last decade, compared to the city as a whole, which saw an increase by 137 percent.
The report defined high-income renters as households earning more than $150,000 per year, and found that about a fifth of New York City renters qualified as high-income, or 211,482 households, which is more than all the affluent renters in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston, San Jose, and San Diego combined.
The report points out that an influx in wealthy renters is a sign of gentrification, with about seven percent of Queens renters now making more than $150,000 per year.
It also shows that citywide the gap between wealthy renters and wealthy homeowners is closing, indicating that owning a home in the city is becoming less affordable, with the median price of buying a home jumping by nearly 44 percent citywide in the last 10 years.
“The seemingly unstoppable growth rate is causing many well-to-do people to turn away from homeownership and choose to rent instead,” the report reads.
In Queens, there are nearly twice as many wealthy homeowners than wealthy renters, but homeownership in the bracket only increased by 111 percent over the last decade, with home prices in Queens rising by about 3.5 percent.
