US renters spent $4.5 trillion on housing this decade

US Renters paid a record-high $512.4bn in rent in 2019 alone, nearly twice what they paid in 2009, Zillow analysis found.

The current median rent is $1,600 per month, up 2.3% from a year ago.

Rent prices have been on the rise since 2012, while they saw the biggest increase of 6.5% in the year to 2015.

Joshua Clark, group economist at Zillow, said: “While the total amount of rent paid has increased each year this decade, that trend is by no means immutable.

“With rental appreciation expected to decrease in the coming year and a homeownership rate that has been ticking up over the past few years, a small or even negative change in total rental spending could be in the cards in the early 2020s.”

Renters in the New York metro area spent the most on rent in 2019, at $56.6bn, followed by renters in the Los Angeles ($39.2bn) and San Francisco ($16.4bn) metro areas.