Real Estate Blog

 In the aftermath of the nation’s housing-market collapse and recession, more than 500 midsize and large cities have seen a rise in the share of homes that are rented rather than owned, according to a USA TODAY analysis of Census data.

Almost 4 million homes have been lost to foreclosures the past five years, turning many former owner-occupied homes into rentals.

The shift to rental housing is potentially long lasting and portends changes for neighborhood stability and how people build wealth, economists say.

“The changes are big but glacial,” says Mark Zandi, economist at Moody’s Analytics.

The swing from owner- to tenant-occupied homes in the past decade has been dramatic in some places:

Of the 100 largest cities, some of those with the largest shifts were Irvine, Calif., which went from about 40 percent of occupied homes rented in 2000 to 49.8 percent in 2010; Philadelphia increased from 40.7 percent to 45.9 percent; and Birmingham, Ala., rose from 46.3 percent to 50.7 percent.

Twenty-five cities including Baltimore, Minneapolis, Sacramento and Salt Lake City swung from having more than half of homeowners in 2000 to majorities of renters in 2010. In Reading, Pa., 57.6 percent of occupied homes were rentals in 2010, up from 49 percent in 2000.

Florida, California and Arizona had the most cities where the share of renter-occupied housing grew by at least 5 percentage points. All three states have been hit hard by foreclosures.

Nationwide, 34.9 percent of occupied homes were rented in 2010, up from 33.8 percent in 2000.

The Census data that USA TODAY analyzed for cities covered only housing within the cities’ boundaries, not their much larger metropolitan areas.

Vacant properties, excluding seasonal or vacation homes, accounted for 7.9 percent of U.S. housing units in 2010.

It’s not clear how many of those have since become rentals or owner-occupied homes.

The renter household market had remained fairly stable from 1990 to 2006, says Daniel McCue, senior research analyst at Harvard University’s Joint Center for Housing Studies.

Since 2006, when housing prices peaked, the number of renter households in the U.S. has grown an average of 692,000 a year, while owner households have fallen an average of 201,000 a year, Census surveys show.

Several factors will boost the growth of rental homes for years to come, Zandi says, including continued foreclosures, continued drops in home prices that frighten buyers and potential cuts to government subsidies supporting homeownership.

On the other hand, 74 percent of renters think owning is superior to renting, said a recent survey by mortgage giant Fannie Mae.

There will be a steady and gradual increase in rent rates as rental supplies diminish.

“There’s still a pull toward homeownership although it’s been diminished,” McCue says.
Contributing: Paul Overberg

© Copyright 2011 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Inc., Julie Schmit and Barbara Hansen.