U.S. renters spent $4.5t on housing this decade

U.S. renters spent a cumulative $4.5 trillion on rent during the 2010s, according to a new Zillow® analysis. That’s more than the GDP of Germany or the combined market values of Apple, Microsoft, Amazon and Alphabet.

In 2019 alone, renters spent more than $512 billion on housing — the most of any year in this decade. Altogether, renters spent 2.9 percent more on rent this year than they did in 2018 and 46.5 percent more than in 2009 ($349.8 billion).

The current median rent is $1,600 per month, up 2.3 percent from a year ago. Rents have been on the rise since 2012, creating an affordability crunch that has led many renters to make sacrifices in order to pay their rent, including living with roommates longer, or reducing their savings for a down payment. Nationally, rent prices grew the fastest in June 2015, when the U.S. median rent rose 6.5 percent annua