While leaders of the two multifamily organizations acknowledge the importance of the push for homeownership, they highlight the more dire need for more multifamily housing. "Homeownership alone cannot create sufficient affordable and essential employee housing, revitalize deteriorating neighborhoods, reign in suburban sprawl, create smart growth-inspired communities or even house our aging population," NMHC/NAA senior vice president for government affairs Jim Arbury explains.

Over the next ten years, 73 million Echo Boomers--children of baby boomers who will leave family homes to establish their own residences--and 13 million immigrants are expected to create a significant hike in demand for multifamily housing options. "Our biggest challenge," Arbury adds, "is to get policy makers to understand that housing advocates and even the congressionally chartered Millennial Housing Commission agree that rental housing should be a national priority."