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Between 2015 and 2023, the U.S. added 4x more homeowner households than renter households. In fact, since more homeowner households were formed than for-sale homes built, that implies millions of single-family homes initially built for rent were sold to individual owner-occupiers. That’s according to rental housing economist Jay Parsons of Madera Residential.
Here are the data points supporting this conclusion based on US Census data:
- Compared to 2015, there were 12 million more owner-occupied housing units at the end of 2023.
- Compared to 2015, there were 2.8 million more renter-occupied housing units at the end of 2023.
- Between 2015 and 2023, the US built 6 million for-sale homes, but added 12 million new homeowners over the same period.
Our take
There is a widespread suspicion that institutional investors (i.e., real estate investors who own 1,000 homes or more) are causing the US to become a “renter nation.” With his latest post, Parsons has gone a long way to bust this myth. Even in locales such as Atlanta where large institutional investors are the most active, owning as much as 24% of the single-family rental market, homeownership has trended UP over the last decade across all major counties in the metro. True, high mortgage rates and elevated home prices are genuinely inhibiting homeownership, but stop scapegoating institutional investors or single-family homes built to rent. They aren’t causing that, and they aren’t causing homeownership to decline.