A recent National Association of Home Builders study of federal government data showed that the percentage of new home construction devoted to build-to-rent single-family houses grew sharply over time.

"According to NAHB's analysis of data from the Census Bureau's Quarterly Starts and Completions by Purpose and Design, there were approximately 18,000 single-family built-for-rent (SFBFR) starts during the first quarter of 2024," wrote NAHB Chief Economist Robert Dietz. "This is 20% higher than the first quarter of 2023, albeit with favorable comps due to a weak start of 2023. Over the last four quarters, 80,000 such homes began construction, which is almost a 16% increase compared to the 69,000 estimated SFBFR starts in the four quarters prior to that period."

The market segment's size is small enough that month-to-month movements are rarely statistically significant. However, the current four-quarter moving average of construction market share of 8% is triple the 1992-2012 historical average of 2.7%.