“I’ll rent instead of buying a home”: 1.2 million high-income young US households turn to stocks

For a growing number of high-income young Americans, buying a home no longer looks like the automatic next step. Instead, they are renting and putting money into stocks and other financial assets.

The shift reflects the widening gap between housing prices and incomes, along with the high cost of borrowing. The long-established model of buying a home and paying down a mortgage is giving way to a strategy that keeps housing costs lower while allowing savings and seed money to be invested.

Research from Harvard University’s Joint Center for Housing Studies found that the median price of a US single-family home reached five times median household income in 2024. The ratio stood at 4.1 times in 2019, showing that home prices have moved further out of reach relative to earnings.

Renting also requires less money upfront and costs less each month in the short term. Realtor.com analysis found that rent was cheaper than the monthly cost of buying a home across all 50 major metropolitan areas. Median rent was $1,695 a month, while the monthly cost of purchasing a home with a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage was $2,553.