Gen Z to Spend $145,000 on Rent by 30, RentCafe Finds

(Image courtesy of RentCafe; Breakout courtesy of Mathias Reding/pexels.com)

An average member of Generation Z will spend $145,000 on rent by their 30th birthday, RentCafe, Santa Barbara, Calif., found, noting millennials spent $127,000 during that period of their lives (14% less).

However, Gen Z is also projected to earn about 14% more than millennials during their 20s.

Both generations will have spent roughly 27% of their income from 22-29 on rent.

For members of Gen Z who own a home during their 20s, that would account for 30% of their income, compared with 36% for millennials during the same period. For Gen Z, it would cost about $165,000 to own a home during that time period.

However, there’s good news for Gen Z. The gap between renting and owning will be less than it was for millennials during the same period–14% for Gen Z compared with 36% for millennials.

Members of Generation Z who will pay the most in rent by 30 live in San Jose, Calif., where rent can add up to $296,000. San Francisco, at No. 2, would be $287,000. Other expensive metros include Honolulu, Boston, New York and Los Angeles.

However, most of those metro areas also come with high salaries for many workers.

Additionally, San Jose tops the list of the largest gaps between renting and owning–for Gen Z, renting would cost $171,000 less than owning. Los Angeles and Yuba City, Calif., rank second and third on that list at $170,890 and $105,102, respectively.

There are some places where buying a home would be cheaper than renting for Gen Z. No. 1 would be Ann Arbor, Mich. It would also be cheaper to buy than rent in Bloomington, Ind., and Ocala, Fla.