SAN FRANCISCO, Dec. 22 (Xinhua) -- U.S. renters have spent 12.6 billion U.S. dollars more on rent in 2018 than in last year, about 2.6 percent increase from the 2017 figure, said a report released over the weekend.
U.S. households spent a record 504.4 billion dollars on rent last year, more than the entire Gross Domestic Product of Belgium, which amounts to 494.7 billion dollars, said the latest report of San Francisco-based HotPads, Inc., a subsidiary of online real estate database company Zillow Group.
The report attributed the rent hikes to rising rents throughout much of this year, despite a decrease in the number of households who rent their homes.
There are about 43.2 million renter households in the United States in 2018, a slight decline of 100,000 from 2017, said the report.
Throughout 2018, rents rose about 3 percent year over year, continuing a gradual slowdown in rent appreciation that began in mid-2016. The current median rent stands at 1,475 dollars, up 3 percent from a year ago.
Among the 50 largest metro areas in the U.S., renters in the New York City metro area spent the most on rent this year, with a total of 55.6 billion dollars, as the total rent has increased on a yearly basis in nearly every major market across the country that was covered by the HotPads report.
Cities experiencing the fasted rent growth are Orlando, Las Vegas and Phoenix, at a rate more than twice as fast as the national median, the report said.
Renters in Orlando and Las Vegas paid about 4.4 billion dollars for rent in 2018, while those in Phoenix spent about 7.5 billion dollars.
"After several years of a booming economy, more millennials became financially able to become home owners in 2018," said Joshua Clark, an economist at HotPads.
"However, rent affordability continues to be a challenge, as those who still rent are paying even higher prices now than they were a year ago," he added.
The housing market in the United States is cooling nationwide, which may make it easier for renters to keep up with housing expenses, Clark said.
In the New York metro, rent growth has slowed down in 2018, with rental rate rising only 1 percent annually now, compared to 1.8 percent in the corresponding period of last year.
