From 2005 to 2015, households with yearly income of more than $150,000 that chose to rent increased by 217 percent, compared with an 82 percent increase in those who chose to buy, according to U.S. Census data. This represents a jump of 1.2 million renter households in this income bracket.
This 10-year trend appears to be holding. From 2014 to 2015, renter households with income above $150,000 increased by 12 percent. Year over year, Fort Worth, Texas, saw the biggest jump in high-income renters, with 77 percent more people choosing to live in apartment communities in 2015 than in 2014. Portland, Oregon, saw a year-over-year increase of 71 percent, and Memphis, Tennessee, a jump of 51 percent.
Not surprisingly, large cities have the most apartment households with incomes above $150,000. New York leads the pack (212,000), followed by San Francisco (57,000), Los Angeles (51,000), Chicago (33,000) and Houston (22,000).