SEATTLE—Renters including both apartment and single-family home tenants shelled out a record $485.6 billion in 2017, Zillow said Thursday. That represents an increase of $4.9 billion, or slightly more than 1%, from 2016.

“Renters spent more than ever on rent this year, but the amount they spent grew at the slowest pace in recent years as more renters transitioned into homeownership and new rental supply slowed rent growth across the country,” says Aaron Terrazas, senior economist with Seattle-based Zillow. “Despite recent changes to federal tax laws that have historically made homeownership financially attractive, the long-term dynamics pushing up home values and rents are unlikely to change significantly in 2018.” Home values, too, hit a new high this past year, reaching a collective $31.8 trillion nationally.

Renters in the New York City and Los Angeles-Long Beach metro areas spent the most on rent over the past year, at $54 billion and $38.6 billion, respectively. These markets are also home to the largest number of renter households. That being the case, New York/Northern New Jersey was also among the nation's slowest-growing metro areas in terms of year-over-rent gains, with the average rent check rising just 0.3% compared to the previous year.

The rents that San Franciscans pay are so high that with a total outlay of $15.8 billion, renters in that market collectively paid $616 million more in rent than Chicago renters did, despite there being 467,000 fewer renters in San Francisco than in Chicago. On a Y-O-Y basis, Chicago rents were up by 0.1%, while San Francisco rents declined by the same percentage. With a value of $1.4 trillion, San Francisco housing stock is worth about 70% more than the total housing stock in the Chicago metro area, Zillow data show.

Las Vegas, Minneapolis and Charlotte had the largest gains in the total amount of rent paid, with each increasing by more than 7% since 2016. Seattle and Portland, OR saw Y-O-Y gains of 5.6% and 6.1%, respectively, The total outlay of rents in Seattle—the nation's 15th largest metro area by population—over the past year was $9.4 billion, or nearly $1 billion higher than that of Philadelphia, the nation's seventh most populous metro area.

Instant Insights /

Total Rents Hit New High in 2017

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