Confessions of a Dual Shopper: Those Shopping for For-Sale and Rental Homes Are Willing to Go Smaller, But Won't Compromise on the Third Bedroom

• Dual shoppers are most common in Los Angeles (12%), San Diego (10.8%) and San Francisco (10.1%).
• Dual shoppers gravitate toward homes with the same number of bedrooms across both for-sale and rental listings, reflecting consistent preferences.
• Across the U.S., homes that dual-intent shoppers engage with have monthly mortgage payments about $415 higher than rent on the rental properties they consider.

About 8% of shoppers on Zillow looking to buy a home also shop for rentals. These “dual shoppers” explore both options before making a decision, underscoring how affordability pressures are blurring the line between renting and buying.

Measuring the rent-versus-buy decision is inherently challenging; traditional approaches rely on assumptions about how to match homes across the two markets, and comparing a typical for-sale home to a typical rental often falls short because the properties are rarely directly comparable. By focusing on dual shoppers and letting their own engagement behavior do the matching, we get a more accurate picture of the trade-offs households actually face.

Because Zillow hosts both for-sale and rental listings, it offers a unique window into how shoppers navigate between the two markets. 

Dual shoppers want three bedrooms, but are willing to go smaller for a rental

Dual shoppers tend to focus on similar types of homes — most often three-bedroom properties — suggesting their lifestyle needs remain consistent even as they consider different paths. Rather than changing what they want in a home, many are straddling the fence between renting and buying, deciding which option best fits their budget and long-term goals.

In most cases, that decision likely comes down to monthly costs. For the homes dual-intent shoppers consider, owning is typically $415 more expensive per month than renting, including mortgage payments, property taxes, insurance and maintenance, and assuming a 20% down payment. In high-cost markets like San Jose, that gap exceeds $3,400 per month.

Dual shoppers typically explore larger homes when browsing for-sale listings — the rentals they consider are, on average, 284 square feet smaller. Even so, these rental properties often provide higher value per square foot — based on Zestimate comparisons — suggesting they may feature newer finishes, updated amenities or more efficient layouts.

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Where dual shopping is most common

Dual shopping is more prevalent in markets where affordability constraints create a steep financial divide between owning and leasing. Los Angeles metro leads the nation in dual shopping, with 12% of for-sale shoppers also browsing rentals, followed by San Diego (10.8%) and San Francisco (10.1%). In each of these coastal markets, the median household would need to spend roughly two-thirds of its income on a monthly mortgage payment with a 20% down payment, highlighting the affordability pressures driving shoppers to consider both options. Renting, by comparison, cuts that burden roughly in half, to about one-third of income.

New York City stands out as a major outlier. According to StreetEasy® data, 29.9% of NYC home shoppers are also considering rentals — 3.8 times the national share and 4 times the share for the broader New York metro area. The city’s unusually high share of renter households (about 70%) and steep home prices are probable reasons it’s especially common for New York City shoppers to weigh both options.

At the other end of the spectrum, dual shopping is less common in more affordable markets, where homeownership is more feasible for shoppers. Metros with a higher share of affordable inventory, lower home price to income ratio and fewer years for potential buyers to save for a down payment are associated with lower shares of for-sale shoppers also engaging with rentals. Hartford has the lowest share of dual shoppers at 4.2%. 

*Table ordered by share of dual shoppers

**Among homes that dual shoppers engage with. Positive values indicate the median for-sale option is more expensive or larger than the median rental option

Methodology
nThis analysis uses anonymized Zillow user activity to understand how people shop for homes, particularly when weighing the decision to rent versus buy. Zillow identified users who actively engaged with listings by saving or sharing a home, grouping activity by month and region. Each user was categorized based on whether they interacted with for-sale listings, rental listings or both. Zillow then analyzed the characteristics of homes these users engaged with, including size, bedrooms, age and estimated value. For for-sale homes, Zillow estimated monthly ownership costs based on list price, assuming a 20% down payment and incorporating mortgage payments, taxes, insurance and maintenance, and compared those costs to rents viewed by the same users.