Renters Flood The New Jersey Suburbs. The Garden State Has More Tenants Than Any Other State As Home Buying Becomes Further Out Of Reach

If real estate guru Grant Cardone wanted proof of his assertion that the U.S. is becoming a “renter nation,” he needs to look no further than the New Jersey suburbs. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the number of rental-occupied homes has increased significantly nationwide over the past year. Rental analytics site Point2Homes, which analyzed the Census data, found that the Garden State tops the list.

Hampered by the costs of homeownership, 39 suburbs with populations exceeding 10,000 have shifted toward renter-heavy populations — a stark contrast to the conventional notion of suburban living as being owner-occupied.

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New York City’s Cost Of Living And High New Jersey Taxes Fuel Rental Demand

The proximity to New York City’s employment hub has always made New Jersey a prime real estate location. However, high house prices and interest rates have made coming up with the money to buy a home difficult.

Rental populations have historically been high in traditional blue-collar cities and towns, such as Harrison, New Jersey, which has an 81% renter occupancy rate. It’s nearly 80% in nearby Union City. Both towns have high real estate tax rates, which also fuels the rental demand.  According to the National Association of Homebuilders, nearly 75% of U.S. households are unable to secure financing for a $460,000 mortgage, the median-priced home in 2025. 

Many New Jersey Towns Have Over 50% Rental Population

New Jersey is on the high end of unaffordability, with towns and cities such as Bound Brook, North Arlington, East Franklin and Secaucus experiencing an 8% increase in their renter population between 2018 and 2023, which accounts for a nearly 60% tenant demographic. Elsewhere in the state, Elizabeth and Paterson, also near Newark, added more than 3,500 renter households each over the previous five years, making them two of the most rapidly growing rental cities nationwide, according to Point2Homes. 

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Boston’s Suburbs Experience Explosive Rental Growth

The report showed that a suburb’s rental community experiences the greatest growth when it’s within commuting distance to a pricey major city. Brookline and Watertown, outside Boston, have also flipped to rental majority towns, while Chelsea and Lawrence have the highest share of suburban Boston renters at 70%.

The Northeast’s Low Inventory Exacerbating Rent Inflation

“The rise of the renter suburb is not a blip. It’s a fundamental shift in how Americans live and think about housing,” Point2Homes said. “Although it mainly took off because of the late 2000s housing crisis and gained more ground during the pandemic, this trend is maintained by factors like remote work and market conditions that don’t quite favor homeownership.”

The policy research organization, Economic Observatory, says, “No area of the United States has been completely safe from steep rent inflation over the past half-decade.” It says that the increase of residential construction in the Sunbelt has eased the housing crisis there. “But in the Midwest and the Northeast, where homebuilding remains sluggish, rent inflation remains high. It seems that the key to affordability is ample supply.”

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