US homeownership has been on the decline since the Great Recession for many reasons including new lifestyle preferences and increasingly, affordability. A new report by ATTOM Data Solution highlights the latter, making it ever more clear that we are indeed becoming a renter nation. It has found that renting a three-bedroom property is more affordable than buying a median-priced home in 442 of 755, or 59%, of US counties analyzed, according to its newly-released 2019 Rental Affordability Report.
Jennifer von Pohlmann, director of content and PR at ATTOM Data Solutions, explains the reason why: “With home price appreciation increasing annually at an average of 6.7% in those counties analyzed for this report and rental rates increasing an average of 3.5%, coupled with the fact that home prices are outpacing wages in 80% of the counties, renting a home is clearly becoming the more attractive option in this volatile housing market.”
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Erika Morphy
Erika Morphy has been writing about commercial real estate at GlobeSt.com for more than ten years, covering the capital markets, the Mid-Atlantic region and national topics. She's a nerd so favorite examples of the former include accounting standards, Basel III and what Congress is brewing.
