Over the past three years, some 4 million Americans were forced out of their homes or otherwise elected to dispense with a mortgage in favor of renting an apartment. The precipitous drop in the national homeownership rate, coupled with the emergence of an 80 million–strong Gen Y demographic now entering peak renting age, has most housing experts convinced that the multifamily apartment market is on the cusp of a historic boom. With economically shell-shocked consumers neither qualifying for nor interested in real estate investments, some observers suggest that a permanent shift toward renting has occurred in the psychographic of the American household. Meanwhile, as the homeownership rate continues to drop, significant changes are occurring in the way apartment owners and home builders design, locate, finance, market, and price their products.
But with apartment owners pushing rents to all-time highs and pundits hopeful of an economic recovery within the next decade, how long will the rent versus own dichotomy last? Here’s an exclusive look at who’s winning and who’s losing the battle for the hearts, minds, and checkbooks of Americans looking for a new place to live.
Over the past three years, some 4 million Americans were forced out of their homes or otherwise elected to dispense with a mortgage in favor of renting an apartment. The precipitous drop in the national homeownership rate, coupled with the emergence of an 80 illion-strong Gen Y demographic now entering peak renting age, has most housing experts convinced that the multifamily apartment market is on the cusp of a historic boom.
With economically shell-shocked consumers neither qualifying for nor interested in real estate investments, some observers suggest that a permanent shift toward renting has occurred in the psychographic of the American household. Meanwhile, as the homeownership rate continues to drop, significant changes are occurring in the way apartment owners and home builders design, locate, finance, market, and price their products.
But with owners pushing rents back to all-time highs and pundits hopeful of an economic recovery within the next decade, how long will the rent vs. own dichotomy last? Here’s an exclusive look at who’s winning and who’s losing the battle for the hearts, minds, and checkbooks of Americans looking for a new place to live.
