In addition to being saddled with historically high amounts of debt from college tuition, a troubling new study has revealed that most millennials will have spent nearly six figures on housing rent before they hit their 30s.
According to a new survey by RentCafe, an online apartment sale and listing site, the average U.S. millennial aged 22 to 40 years will spend/have spent approximately $92,600 on apartment rent by the time they turn 30.
The high rental rates millennials face represent a sharp increase from previous generations, where Generation X (aged 41 to 52 years) and baby boomers (aged 53 to 71) had only spent an average of $82,200 and $71,000 on rent, respectively, by the time their populations had reached the age of 30.
In comparing the younger and older millennials in the group aged 22 to 40 years, younger millennials were also found to have paid more rent than their older millennial counterparts. Millennials age 22 to 29 years are predicated to pay roughly $97,400 in total rent by the time they reach the age of 30, while those millennials aged 30 to 40 years are estimated to have only paid $90,500 in rent by the time they reached the age of 30 years.
In addition to facing higher rental rates, millennials are also facing a higher rent burden, which represents the percentage of overall yearly income that economists and financial planners recommend spending on a rental property that is not a mortgage. The average millennial will have earned $206,600 by the time they reach 30, which is only a slight increase from Generation X ($202,100) and baby boomers ($195,700).
Despite having experienced only a small increase in overall earnings, millennials face a rent burden of roughly 45 percent of their overall income between the ages of 22 to 30 years, compared to the 41 percent overall income for Generation X and 36 percent of overall income that baby boomers face during the ages of 22 and 30 years.
The survey also included predictions for the future, including estimates for Generation Z, or individuals who are currently aged 15 to 21 years of age. According to survey predictions, Generation Z will be the first generation to have spent an average of more than six figures on rent between the time they turn 22 years old and the time they reach age 30, roughly $102,100.
