The Urban Institute’s Housing Finance Policy Center recently hosted a discussion with three single-family rental experts to evaluate five key features of the fastest-growing segment of the housing market.
The rise in rental single-family households is not anticipated to slow in the coming years, as it is charged by shifts in household preferences and changing demographics. For example, renting can be cost-effective for younger people as they may wait longer to get married and have children. Experts say that institutional investors in single-family rentals can maintain growth based on their ability to expand into low-cost, smaller cities offering diverse property types.
One of the most pronounced shifts in the housing market since the financial crisis has been the evolution of the single-family rental (SFR) market. Today, single-family rentals (one-unit, attached and detached) account for 35 percent of the country’s 44 million rental units, compared with 31 percent in 2006. More than half of renters live in structures with less than four units.
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