More Americans are Renting Single Family Homes than Apartments, Recent Study Shows

A recent report from Corelogic, debunks the notion that more Americans rent apartments than single family homes.

Sam Khater of Corelogic reports that the single family rental market represents 52% of the total residential rental market.

Khater said that “the single-family rental market is a large, deep $3 trillion market that accounts for 21 million rental units or 52 percent of the residential rental market.”

“The single-family rental market is strong and vibrant with stable rents, low months’ supply and a healthy pace of closing,” Khater added.

Robbie Whelan of Wall Street Journal wrote, “Since the foreclosure crisis took hold, flooding the market with millions of cheap homes, hedge funds have been mining the distressed market for rental opportunities, teaming up with local property managers to buy thousands of foreclosed homes at courthouse auctions and more recently, from Fannie Mae, with the hope of generating double-digit investment returns.”

In a white paper to Capitol Hill and Congress, the Federal Reserve said that the “forces behind the decline in the homeownership rate, such as tight credit conditions, are unlikely to unwind significantly in the immediate future, indicating a longer-term need for an expanded stock of rental housing.”

In February this year, the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), the agency that regulates Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, called on investors to purchase approximately 2,500 Fannie Mae foreclosed properties with the condition that these purchased homes must be rented out for a certain number of years.

Last March, Bank of American, one of the nation’s biggest mortgage lenders, announced that the company will allow a certain number of mortgage lenders who are facing foreclosure to remain in their homes as renters through the bank’s pilot mortgage-to-rental program. The bank announced that ultimately these rented homes will be transitioned to investor ownership.

Whether you are a first-time home buyer, first-time home seller, empty nester, thinking about selling a home or buying a home, do contact the Guldi Real Estate Group. In Southern Maryland, the Guldi Group is the number one real estate team.