DC: Renting Has Overtaken Homeownership In Many DC Suburbs 2010-19, More Than 49 Maj. Metro Regions

[appalachiablue]

- NPR, Sept. 27, 2021.

Suburbia is typically viewed as a bastion of homeownership, but a new analysis suggests that renting is the new normal in many D.C. suburbs. The Washington metro region has the nation's highest number of suburban communities that transitioned from majority homeowner to majority renter between 2010 and 2019, according to a recent analysis of Census data by RENTCafé.

This area has 14 suburban areas with renter majorities, more than any of the country's 49 other major metropolitan regions, the report says; the Miami and Los Angeles metropolitan regions rank second and third, respectively.

Merrifield, Virginia saw the greatest rate of change of any metro suburb, with 64% of residents now renting, up from 44% in 2010, according to the analysis. East Riverdale, Maryland went from 38% renter in 2010 to 56% renter in 2019. Other Northern Virginia communities where renting has crept above 50% include Huntington, Hybla Valley, and Lincolnia; in Maryland, Hyattsville, Hillcrest Heights, and College Park have seen a similar change.

The shift is part of a broader pattern, according to the study.

"The very definition of suburban living has been rewritten throughout the last decade as suburbs in the nation's 50 largest metros gained 4.7 million people since 2010 — a whopping 79% of whom were renters," writes Adrian Popa, a writer for RENTCafé. "What's more, between 2010 and 2019, the number of suburban renters grew by 22% — a number that dwarfs the 3% increase in suburban homeowners during the same period."

The study attributes the change to a growing number of residents — especially younger people — priced out of the housing market. Nationally, more than half of suburban renters are younger than 45 with median household earnings around $50,000, according to RENTCafé. Other factors not addressed in the analysis could also be at play, including an increased supply of rental stock in newly developing neighborhoods, changing lifestyle preferences, and rising urban rents that send tenants to the suburbs.

Dozens of other suburban areas could flip to renter-majority in the coming years, encouraged in part by the pandemic, which prompted some cooped-up city dwellers to seek out more square footage...
- More,
https://www.npr.org/local/305/2021/09/27/1040885873/renting-has-overtaken-homeownership-in-many-d-c-suburbs
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~ A tough situation for the young, 'Gen Rent.'

[elleng]

1. Maybe not in my exurb, but I do rent my house in southern MD.

[Scrivener7]

2. My niece is 30. Financially, we have very similar sensibilities except in this area, and I think

she is representative of her generation. I try to encourage her to buy something so that she can get into the market and build from there.

She says she has no desire to own a home. She thinks, first, that it is an investment in a world that is too precarious to be making such a commitment. Second, it is an encumbrance that simply works as the first step in an unnecessary cascade of consumerism.

I sort of agree with her, but I wonder how things will change as she, and her generation, get older.

It breaks my heart, thought, that she believes it is totally possible we will blow this whole thing up at some point before a 30 year mortgage would expire.

[getagrip_already]

3. not sure how meaningful that is in DC....

DC is a town that rotates a portion of its population every election cycle. There is likely a lot of corporate money that has flowed in to buy units as they traditionally transition from one party in power to another.

Is it a trend nationally? Are the landlords corporate entities? Is this a temporary affect of covid where people want to move out of cities - at least temporarily to get to less densely populated areas?

Those are the answers I'd like to see.

[katmondoo]

4. I live in Gainesville, FL a lot of building in the past 5 years. Mostly rentals with some meium

priced homes. I live in a condo. There have been as far as I know no new condo units all rentals now. My grandson would like a condo but the choice is limited. I have been wondering why this change to rentals. I always thought having equity in a house was a better option than paying rent for years with nothing to show it.

[getagrip_already]

5. funny, now that I think of it, but in the 80's it was just the opposite.....

When I graduated college, most buildings where I wanted to live were rental units owned by owner/operators. Then, at some point in the 80's, there was a blinding rush where these owner/operators converted their buildings to condo's and cashed out.

It became very difficult to find good rental units.

Now it seems the worm has turned. As condo's and homes come on the market there is a lot of corporate money waiting to vacuum them up and convert them back to rentals. Some day soon, too many renters will have a kushner for a landlord.

It may not be so much that people want to rent, as much as there is so little affordable inventory they have no choice.