Renters by choice?

Housing has never cost more than it does today. In fact, 62% of people relocating feel that the cost for housing in their new location is the biggest challenge they face. (2019 U.S. Domestic Mobility Volume and Cost Survey) 

To further support the affordability challenges, in an April survey from Freddie Mac, more than half of survey respondents made spending or housing changes to afford their monthly housing payment. Additionally, 82% of people felt that renting is more affordable than home ownership, which was an all-time high for the survey and up 15 points from February 2018.

So yes, many people rent because they can't afford to buy, but with greater employment and historically low interest rates, there is a growing number of people that just don't want to purchase a home, but still want the lifestyle of living in a single family home. 

NPR just shared this article "Renters Only: These New Homes Aren't For Sale" which elaborates on a new trend of home rentership communities being developed to meet this interest. One of the developers in Denver (Josh Hartmann, the CEO of NexMetro Communities) explains, "What we were shocked to find out was it was people that had great credit, they had money for down payments, they had great incomes, but they just didn't want to own a home. They were a lifestyle renter, renter by choice."

And, this is happening in communities across the United States. The article goes on to explain that there are three types of renters that are attracted to renting single family homes: recent divorcees, aging baby boomers, and millennials. For millennials, student debt is one major issue holding home purchase back. Additionally, as many millennials are currently renters and rents are high, that makes saving up a for a down payment very challenging. So, these types of developments are very attractive.