Key Takeaways
- More than half of Baltimore households were renting in 2024, compared to Maryland’s 32.2% renter share.
- Most recent data shows that Baltimore’s rentership rate has dipped slightly (from 52.1% in 2023 to 51.6% in 2024), but not enough to unseat its status as a renter-majority city.
- Baltimore draws a steady stream of students and young professionals who tend to rent not only for the flexibility that renting provides during early career stages, but also because of financial challenges and the appeal of living closer to universities and job centers where rental housing is more available.
- Over the last decade, the share of renters in Baltimore has been fluctuating and waning, suggesting a subtle shift toward homeownership.
Renting in Baltimore is the norm, not the exception. Last year, more than half the households were renting, making it one of the renter-majority big cities in the United States. By comparison, Maryland’s overall rentership rate stood at just over 32%.
This difference reflects Baltimore’s urban housing dynamics. The area has long attracted a large student population and young professionals, thanks to institutions such as Johns Hopkins University and the University of Maryland. For this demographic, in particular, rental housing can be a more accessible choice in Baltimore. Although homeownership can seem more accessible than in nearby Washington, D.C., for example, it still feels unattainable for many households due to rising home prices and stricter mortgage conditions.
A Decade of Renting in Baltimore, MD
Baltimore’s rentership rate has remained above 50% throughout the last decade, but the trend reveals subtle shifts.
In 2014, 54% of the city’s households were renting. The share climbed in the years that followed and reached its peak in 2020, rising to 56.7% as pandemic uncertainty led more households to rent instead of committing to buying. Since then, the rate has fluctuated and settled at 51.6% in 2024. Meanwhile, the share of renters statewide hovered around 32%-34% across the past decade.
This gap in rentership rates is consistent with broader U.S. trends: major urban areas typically have higher rental concentrations than suburban or rural regions. In Baltimore’s case, the concentration of universities, major hospitals, and large employment hubs reinforces rental demand, as does the presence of more attainable multifamily housing stock compared to wealthier suburban counties.
Renters Across Baltimore Metro Are Renting for Longer
At the same time, the Baltimore metropolitan area mirrors another national trend: people are renting for longer, not just passing through.
According to a Point2Homes study, short-term renting (less than a year) has declined, while households renting for 5–9 years or even 10+ years have grown the most. That pattern is especially visible among Baltimore renters in larger homes, with three-bedroom homes making up the largest share of rentals (almost 50%), followed by two-bedrooms (28.5%).
For Baltimore, this helps explain why the city can hold onto its renter-majority status despite fluctuations and dips in overall rate: when households are renting bigger homes and staying put for the long haul, rentership becomes less of a temporary stage and more of a lasting housing choice.
Baltimore has been diverging from the state’s broader trend toward ownership for a while. The numbers confirm that, despite the city’s rentership rate fluctuating, its durable renter base continues to define its housing profile.
For many Baltimore renters, what they spend on housing is linked to what they save (or don’t save) on getting around the city. A Point2Homes study found that switching from driving to public transit could save residents more than $7,100 a year.
Methodology
Point2Homes.com is a real estate listing portal for rental homes across the United States. Part of Yardi Systems, Point2Homes covers housing trends and news through comprehensive studies that draw from internal data, public records, governmental sources, and online research.
- For this study, we looked at rentership rates in Baltimore and the state of Maryland.
- The report uses data on rentership evolution between 2014 and 2024, as per the U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 1-year estimates. Since ACS 1-year estimates were not published for 2020, data from the Decennial Census was used instead.
- Image: Jon Bilous/Shutterstock.com
Fair use and redistribution
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