Whether people are flocking to San Antonio for college, work, or for retirement, the rate of renters in the city has grown faster than nearly all other cities in Texas, a new study has revealed.

San Antonio has the fourth-fastest-growing rental market in the Lone Star State and ranks as the 23rd-fastest-growing market in the U.S., according to MoveBuddha.

MoveBuddha's experts investigated renter-occupied housing trends from 2019-2024 across more than 250 U.S. metro and micro areas with at least 10,000 rental units. Areas were ranked by the percentage of growth in renter-occupied units during the five-year period.

San Antonio's renter population has increased 16.8 percent from 2019-2024, and just over 50,900 renter-occupied units have been added during that same period. Nearly 255,000 residents have moved to the San Antonio-New Braunfels area, resulting in one new renter-occupied property per five new residents, MoveBudda found.

The report's findings revealed an unexpected trend emerging among the cities experiencing the fastest renter growth. Renter households are "exploding in locales that stand a chance of getting swept up into high regional growth and in spots that already have economies built on transient jobs," rather than in cities with pre-existing surges in population.

Furthermore, the most prominent age demographic leasing rentals isn't among college-age folks or mid-career professionals, but rather individuals heading into retirement.

"Renters aged 65-plus increased 14.12 percent from 2019 to 2024, the fastest growth of any age group across the 889 metro and micro areas analyzed," the report said.

Renter growth in Texas
The South is home to 28 of the top 50 fastest growing rental markets in America, and 10 of those markets are located in Texas. Austin has seen the most growth in renter households in Texas — at 29.2 percent — and it ranks No. 3 among the fastest-growing renter markets nationwide.

"[Austin's] robust development has helped stabilize housing prices and increased supply, even amidst waves of in-migration interest," the report said. "The metro added 93,206 renter-occupied units from 2019 to 2024, the largest numeric increase among the top 25 fastest-growing renter markets."

Renter markets in South Texas are also on the rise: McAllen and Brownsville respectively ranked 30th and 38th among the fastest-growing rental markets in the U.S. McAllen's renter population has grown 15.4 percent since 2019, and Brownsville's has increased 13.3 percent.

Other Texas cities with the fastest-growing rental markets that ranked in the top 100 include:

• No. 9 – Odessa
• No. 21 – Sherman
• No. 27 – Lubbock
• No. 28 – Midland
• No. 32 – College Station
• No. 48 – Dallas
• No. 55 – Killeen
• No. 60 – Houston
• No. 65 – Lufkin
• No. 82 – Victoria