I'm a millionaire -- this is why I sold my home to rent instead

Susie Coen

8 September 2025 at 7:55 pm

0

Bernadette Joy, an angel investor worth $2m (£1.5m) bought her first home at the age of 28.

By 2019 she owned three properties and lived mortgage-free in a four-bedroom house in North Carolina.

But three years ago, Ms Joy, 40, and her husband sold their home for double what they paid for it -- and began renting a one-bedroom flat for $1960-a-month in the centre of Charlotte.

Ms Joy is among a rising number of millionaires in the US who are choosing to rent, preferring the flexibility as well as the ability to invest the money that would be locked up in the property.

The number of renters with an income of more than one million tripled in the US from 4,512 in 2019 to 13,692 in 2023, according to RentCafe.

The highest number of renting millionaires are concentrated in New York, which more than doubled from 2,204 to 5,661 in the three year period.

On the West Coast in San Francisco, the numbers jumped from 321 millionaire renters to 1,411 during those four years.

While the number of millionaire homeowners swelled from 52,966 to 143,320, it was a smaller increase compared to those renting.

"My husband and I travel a lot for both work and leisure and coming back to maintaining a home was a drain of energy," Ms Joy told The Telegraph.

"Renting for us has been a lot more cost efficient after factoring all the maintenance, cleaning and having to furnish a larger space," she said.

She is also considering a move abroad because of the "political environment" in the US and renting gives her and her husband the ability to do so quickly if they want to.

Her old home was in a suburban neighbourhood where residents have to drive everywhere, her new place is in a walkable area and comes with plush amenities including a pool, gym, co-working space and a pickleball court.

"Whenever something breaks, someone comes and fixes it the same day. I am close to my yoga studio, my salt cave and I can walk to some of my favourite restaurants", she said.

Mr Joy said the move also helped her "let go of materialism" as she doesn't feel as though she has to fill a space.

She has invested the money she would have spent on a property back into her business and into her retirement accounts.

Ruthie Assouline, a luxury estate agent with Douglas Elliman, said she is seeing an increasing number of multi-millionaires choosing to rent instead of buy because they can't comfortably afford the homes they want.

"If you want to get a $12m (£8.9), $13m (£9.6m) home... your monthly, particularly in Florida, starts to climb pretty quickly, between the insurance, the taxes, the financing... not everybody could put down several million dollars and then also carry the property for, let's just say, $70,000 (£51,000) a month, but they might be able to afford renting it at $50,000 (£37,000) a month".

Others like the "flexibility" of being able to move when they want and think their money will go further if they invest it on the stock market.

She added: "I guess [they] might be able to afford it today, but then it's like, okay, then you're going to be house rich, cash poor.

"You're not taking advantage of the market, you're stuck and committed to this home, and a big chunk of your net worth is tied into this home. So [they say] 'you know what I'd rather rent, make money in the market and in other outlets'", she said.

"That way, when you do make your purchase, it's a smaller percent of your overall net worth," she added.

Jennette McCurdy, an actress and writer, weighed in on the growing trend on The Iced Coffee Hour podcast. "I love renting," she said.

The star, who reportedly has a net worth of up to $3.5m (£2.6m), bought a three-bedroom property in Los Angeles in 2013 for $905,000 (£669,000), but sold it for $995,000 (£735,000) three years later.

She explained: "I love that anything that goes wrong, I can just send an email. It's fixed the next day or within the week, for sure."