These metro Phoenix residents are renting instead of buying homes

Paul Ruffino owns a home in north Scottsdale’s Troon area but lives with his wife and two daughters in a luxury rental house in north Phoenix where they have a trash valet and resort-style amenities.

He’s part of a growing group of renters-by-choice, who are opting for maintenance-free homes and apartments with garages that are located in popular locations and cost less than a mortgage payment.

“It’s ideal and so much easier than buying another house,” Ruffino, who is in his mid-50s, said. “My wife likes new homes, and our rental house satisfies all our needs.”

He said he can rent out his Scottsdale house for $5,000 a week in the winter. That’s almost double his rent.

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The rent-by-choice trend is largely driven by empty nesters who have sold houses and want to downsize, travel more and ditch home repairs, say developers, property managers and renters.

Also, renting by choice are millennials who can buy homes but don’t want to. In metro Phoenix, those millennials include professional athletes and others who can afford higher rents and want the flexibility it gives them to move quickly for another job.

The stigma of renting is quickly changing. At the same time, millennials are opting for other ways of building wealth, including sports gambling, investing in stocks and cryptocurrency instead of buying home.

“People aren’t as concerned with home ownership now,” said Branden Lombardi, president of Scottsdale-based BB Living that developed the community that Ruffino lives in and several others. “We try to build where people want to live the most like Scottsdale, Tempe and Chandler.”

BB Living home rents can be around $4,000 a month in Scottsdale, but he said that’s much more affordable than buying an older home and paying $6,000-$7,000 per month in a mortgage.

Amenities keep improving in the Valley’s luxury rentals. The communities can come with dog parks, concierges, whiskey and wine rooms, clubhouses with chef kitchens for residents to entertain in and even DNA dog testing to cut down on poop left in common areas.

Housing for those who choose to rent driving Phoenix construction

Renters by choice are driving apartment development in metro Phoenix.

Almost 90% of the Valley apartments built in 2025 were lifestyle developments, according to research firm Yardi Matrix. Those are rentals for tenants with the money and incomes to buy houses but opt to rent.

And 85% of the Phoenix-area apartments planned to go up during the next few years are being developed for renters by choice.

But the Valley’s luxury building spree is putting pressure on rents and making it less expensive for tenants. Concessions, including a month or more free rent, are the norm for many high-end complexes.

Single-family rentals, or detached homes, have increased in popularity among renters-by-choice in metro Phoenix.

Single-family rental communities were launched in metro Phoenix before spreading to other parts of the U.S. There are more than 20,000 build-to-rent homes across the Valley with thousands more planned, according to home building estimates.

The rents on all the high-end homes aren’t cheap. Rents are down a bit, but tenants can pay more than $10,000 a month in the poshest rental communities.

Renting for luxury and convenience of not owning a home

Rents at The Bergen, an uber luxury Phoenix apartment complex at 44th Street and Camelback Road, start at about $7,000 a month and go as high as $16,000, according to rental websites.

For their money, Bergen tenants get 24-hour front desk service, a resident bar, catering kitchen, 2nd story pool with cabanas and towel service, 12-foot balconies, a library, a bicycle repair station and an indoor dog park with washing station.

“The renter-by-choice trend is absolutely growing in Phoenix,” John Beck, head of leasing and concierge at The Bergen, said. “A lot of our residents like to travel and want a lock-and-leave home.”

Colleen Smith, general manager of The Bergen, said one couple who moved in after they sold their Paradise Valley home and bought another to remodel decided to sell the house when it was done and renewed their lease instead.

“People become accustomed to the renting lifestyle and don’t want to go back to owning a home,” she said.

Several professional athletes have also been sighted at Bergen.

Stigma is lifting for renters

The luxury rental lifestyle also is drawing people who haven’t owned a home and aren’t worried about buying one.

“COVID shifted many things, now a whole younger generation aren’t following regular trends and getting married and having kids,” said Kelly O’Brien, vice president of operations at Avenue5, which manages Axis apartments in the Valley.

“They don’t want to maintain a home and be tied down by it. They want to travel and have the flexibility to move and they don’t feel a stigma about renting,” she said.

Renters had often felt like second-class citizens in the neighborhoods where they lived because homeowners typically saw them as short-timers who weren’t invested in the community. But as more people opt to rent, and the number of rentals climbs, the stigma is lifting.

The first tower of a six-building mid-rise development with apartments and condominiums is open for renters in north Scottsdale at Optima McDowell Mountain. Developer Optima has been upping high-end amenities trends in the Valley with projects in the Phoenix’s Biltmore area, Paradise Valley and Kierland in Scottsdale for the past several years.

“Luxury rental buildings are proving to be the best option” for many because “they have everything people need all in one place,” David Hovey Jr., president of Optima, said.

“We’re seeing that many are opting for buildings with expansive amenities, indoor-outdoor living environments, ground-floor retail, robust service offerings and activated social opportunities,” he said.

Amenities and location outweigh buying

Jennifer Lewis bought an East Valley home when she moved to metro Phoenix from California in 2020 but then got divorced and needed to decide whether to buy another home or rent.

Lewis, who is in her mid-40s and a manager for an insurance company making $250,000 a year, could afford to buy. But she found a 2,200-square-foot rental home with four bedrooms and 3 ½ bedrooms in BB Living Val Vista Gilbert.

She pays less than $3,000 a month and doesn’t have to pay HOA, yard maintenance or other typical homeowner costs. The average Gilbert home price is about $600,000, and a mortgage with current rates and a 20% down payment would cost her almost $3,500 a month.

“I love the location, full-size gym and resort-style pool. It’s all new, clean, and there’s less stress with renting,” she said. “I don’t have to replace the A/C if it breaks, and I couldn’t find a house I liked enough to buy.”

U.S. homeowners with a mortgage now pay 37% more per month than renters, according to data from LendingTree.

There are more than 100 million potential renters by choice nationwide between millennials and empty nesters, according to housing industry estimates.

Lisa Materna is in her mid-30s, and she, her husband Jake and their baby rent a home in Glendale near popular shopping and restaurants. They moved from a rental home in Goodyear, where she said there weren’t enough nearby amenities.

“We want to own a home, but there are perks to renting that work for us now,” Materna said. “If the fridge or other appliances go out, we text our landlord. She’s great about taking care of things so we don’t have to worry about them.”

Also, the couple can’t afford to buy homes in the neighborhoods where they want to live, including where they live now.

Only about 33% of 30-year-olds own a home in the U.S. That’s down from 47% in the mid-1980s, according to real estate firm John Burns Research & Consulting.

Most Gen Z and millennials don’t think owning a home is the best way to build wealth. About 65% say gambling and crypto are their top choices for investing, according to a Harris Poll from October.

“Owning a home and building equity used to be the main way to build wealth,” said Mark Singerman, regional director of southwest development at Rockefeller Group that just opened another build-to-rent called Corsica Villas in south Phoenix. “There’s a lot of other ways to build wealth now, and many millennials saw what their parents when through with homes during the housing crash.”

Millennials have grown out of traditional apartments and want a pet door, a little yard, good security, garages and no maintenance, he said.

Reporting by Catherine Reagor, Arizona Republic