Dallas millionaire renter households exploded from just 30 in 2020 to 165 in 2024, a 450 percent surge that landed the city eighth nationwide among metros for growth in high-income renting. The jump comes amid a broader national increase in millionaire renter households.
The figures come from a RentCafe study highlighted in an article by CultureMap Dallas, which found that U.S. millionaire renter households overall grew 229 percent between 2020 and 2024, outpacing the 193 percent growth seen among millionaire homeowners over the same period. Houston posted the steepest climb in the country, with its millionaire renter population rocketing from 18 to 232 households — a 1,189 percent increase that secured the Bayou City the top national ranking, according to the same report. Naples, Florida, Miami, Seattle and Los Angeles rounded out the next four spots on that growth list.
Why High Earners Are Choosing to Rent
The shift away from homeownership among the wealthy isn’t happening in a vacuum. According to Debbie Ingram of Allie Beth Allman & Associates, Freddie Mac’s national weekly average 30-year fixed mortgage rate was 7.40 percent on October 8, 2026, up from 6.30 percent a year earlier — a jump that significantly inflates monthly payments for anyone looking to buy a single-family home. At the same time, builders kept adding supply: Dallas-Fort Worth added roughly 32,000 new Class A apartment units in 2024 alone, which pushed high-end rents down 1.8 percent as competition among landlords intensified, per MMG Real Estate Advisors.
In Dallas, buying costs more than renting. Nationally, three out of four millionaire renter households rely on combined, multi-earner incomes rather than a single seven-figure salary, with only 4,462 individual renters earning more than $1 million on their own out of 18,400 total millionaire renter households in 2024, according to data reported by CRE Daily. Chief executives, software developers and managers rank among the three most common professions among this renter cohort, the CultureMap report notes, with the authors observing that renting suits high earners whose work offers substantial income without tying them to one location.
Dallas’s Corporate Magnet Keeps Pulling In Wealth
Part of what’s feeding the trend locally is Dallas-Fort Worth’s continued dominance as a corporate relocation hub. The metro ranked as the top U.S. area for net corporate headquarters relocations for the seventh consecutive year in 2025, securing 11 interstate or international headquarters moves, according to WFAA. Commercial real estate firm CBRE has documented more than 100 corporate headquarters relocations to DFW between 2018 and 2025, the station reports, a steady influx that keeps delivering executive-level high earners into the region’s apartment market…