Remote work, steep mortgage rates and new types of rental properties are fueling demand far from urban downtowns.
Renting is taking off in the suburbs as homeownership remains out of reach for many would-be buyers.
Between 2018 and 2023, rentership surged by at least 5 percentage points in 11 out of 20 suburbs surrounding the largest U.S. metro areas, according to a recent analysis by Point2Homes, a rental market research company.
During the same period, 15 suburbs went from being predominantly composed of homeowners to majority-renter communities. The trend spans fast-growing Sun Belt metros like Dallas, Houston and Miami as well as Northeastern cities like Boston and Philadelphia.
In five of those top 20 metro areas — Dallas, Minneapolis, Boston, Tampa and Baltimore — the suburbs are gaining renters faster than the urban centers they surround, Point2Homes found. The share of residents who rent surged in the Dallas suburbs by 17.6% from 2018 to 2023, while that rate rose just 7.9% in the city itself — with the nearby suburbs of Frisco, McKinney and Grand Prairie each gaining over 5,000 renter households apiece during that period.
partial_accumen@lemmy.world 1 week ago
In the early 2000s I bought an older small starter home in a LCOL city right next to an affluent suburb. Over the next 15 year I watched as my owner-neighbors moved out as many of the homes became rentals. I grew to know my new rental neighbors and asked if they rented because they only wanted to live temporarily in the city or other reasons. All of them cited that buying the homes they were renting were out of reach for them financially. I moved out of that home and sold it a few years ago. The couple that bought it were living with their parents and said they were looking to start a life together in a home of their own. Keep in mind they were the highest offer, so their story didn’t sway me either way, but it was nice to know that my home wouldn’t become yet another rental.
Thirty days post closing, the property deed changed information showed their names as owners removed and then showed an LLC as owner. My old starter home is a rental property now…like so many others in the neighborhood.
MutilationWave@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 week ago
I’m not calling you out specifically, I hope you don’t take offense, but I really hate the term “starter home”. Most of us will never own a home of any size so it comes off bougie.
partial_accumen@lemmy.world 1 week ago
When I bought it decades ago, it was far from bougie. However, those two works as a name communicated exactly what kind of house it was for the purposes of explaining the situation. What two word name do you believe would be more appropriate without being too verbose?
Would you be able to afford a $150k home?