By Robert Greenberg, VP Marketing, B2R Finance
When we saw this chart from the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA), we were — to put it simply — wowed.
It brings into focus what we’ve been talking a lot about over the past year — there is a fundamental shift in the housing sector from an ownership mentality to a renter nation.
The MBA revealed this chart — along with many others — during a housing market overview at the National Mortgage Servicing Conference recently held in Dallas, Texas.
The chart uses U.S. Census Bureau data to provide a historical view of what’s been happening with homeowners, renters and the homeownership rate over the past 20 years.
The trend shows a clear move in the U.S. toward renter households in the wake of the 2007 housing crisis. In fact, 2014 was a huge year for renters as the number of renter households grew by over 2 million, with an astounding 917,000 additional renter households being added in the fourth quarter alone. There was an overall decrease of 354,000 owner-occupied households for the year, resulting in a net growth of 1.66 million total new households.
Rental housing still looks bright this year with strong demand expected from young people leaving their parents’ homes or leaving roommates behind to rent their own place now that the economy is looking better.
Of course, we wonder what this chart will look like two or five or even 20 years from now, but we strongly believe the move toward a renter nation will be a long-term trend and one that offers rental investors a great opportunity.
Have questions about how to take advantage of this trend? B2R Finance offers rental investors a range of lending products to help unlock equity from existing portfolios to provide the cash needed to build rental portfolios nationwide. Visit us at http://www.b2rfinance.com/borrowers and follow us on Twitter @B2RFinance.
