Tampa sees surge in millionaire renters, national report finds

TAMPA, Fla - The Tampa Bay area is seeing a growing number of millionaire families choosing to rent rather than immediately purchase homes.

What we know:

According to a report from RentCafe, the number of millionaire households renting in the Tampa metro area jumped from 21 in 2020 to 76 in 2024.

That's a 262% increase, ranking Tampa 15th among U.S. metro areas. The growth outpaced cities including New York, Chicago and Philadelphia, as well as the national increase of 229%.

Nationally, millionaire renters increased more rapidly than millionaire homeowners, whose numbers grew 193% during the same four-year period.

Why you should care:

Experts say an influx of new businesses and jobs can help explain why some metro areas are attracting more wealthy renters.

Doug Ressler, a manager of business intelligence with Yardi Matrix who helped compile the data for the report, said new businesses create a ripple effect throughout local economies, bringing in workers and supporting additional industries and services.

He described the trend as a "magnifier effect."

"The magnifier effect is that the more housing stock or the inbound migration patterns of demographics really causes economic diversity. So the magnifier effect says for everyone, say manufacturing job, you maybe need a dry cleaner, you need grocery, et cetera, et cetera. It magnifies in terms of economic diversity," Ressler said, explaining that economic diversity can help attract even more people to an area.

RentCafe also found that desirable locations, particularly coastal communities, are common among metro areas seeing the biggest increases in millionaire renters.

Local perspective:

Local realtors say some wealthy newcomers are using rentals as a temporary way to get familiar with Tampa Bay before committing to a home purchase.

"They'll come in for a year to get to know specific areas. A lot of Tampa is hyper-local, as well as different areas, like St. Pete, so they want to get to know that specific area, if it's Water Street, if it's the Channel Side District, Hyde Park, which are a lot of higher income areas, they want to get to specifically where they're going move and give themselves the time to do that," said Mia Annibale, Market President with Berkshire Hathaway Florida Properties Group. "What we are seeing is that they rent for typically 12 months, typically a long-term rental and then move on to purchase."

Local realtors also say, in their experience, many of the younger, wealthy newcomers are coming from families with generational wealth.

By the numbers:

RentCafe's report found that nearly half of millionaire renters nationwide are Millennials. Gen Z is experiencing the fastest growth, with the number of millionaire renters in that generation increasing 46-fold since 2020.

Houston led the nation in millionaire renter growth. Lake Havasu City, Arizona, and Charleston, South Carolina, also saw significant increases, going from zero millionaire renter households to hundreds.

Meanwhile, New York City, San Francisco and Los Angeles remain the country's top destinations for millionaire renters.

The report found affluent homeowners are increasingly purchasing homes in smaller inland metro areas, including Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, Provo, Utah, and Des Moines, Iowa.

TampaEconomy