More Than Half Of US Renters Are Now 40 Years Old Or Older

[hatrack]

The majority of U.S. renters are now 40 and older, a fundamental shift over the past decade that reflects the lasting damage of the housing crash and an aging population.

This finding in a report released Wednesday by Harvard University's Joint Center for Housing Studies overturns the assumption that the rental boom is only the result of twenty-somethings flocking to hip urban centers. Single-family houses are a growing share of rentals. And affordability problems are mounting as rents rise faster than wages, while apartment construction increasingly targets tenants with six-figure incomes.

Nearly 51 percent of renters have celebrated their 40th birthday, according to the report's analysis of Census Bureau data. That amounts to 22.4 million households. A decade ago when the housing bubble peaked in 2005, 47 percent of renters — or 16.4 million households — were older than 40. Their share was 43 percent in 1995.

The increase in older renters corresponds with a surge in foreclosures after the housing bubble popped. Since the 2008 financial triggered by the housing bust, there have been roughly 6 million completed foreclosures, according to CoreLogic, a property data firm.

Ed. - No!!

EDIT

http://abcnews.go.com/Business/wireStory/half-us-renters-older-40-study-35661477

[dembotoz]

1. the only reason i own a condo is that i am an only child and my mom died

just the fact
i would remain a 62 year old renter

[edhopper]

2. I live in NYC

Can barely afford rent, let alone half a million minimum for just a decent condo.

[dembotoz]

3. couple years back i hung out for a bit with a woman who retuned to wisconsin after living in dc

she bought a house out here and then printed up a bunch of copies of the photos of it.
she sent them back to her old friends out east gloating about what she was able to get for under a 100 k

i updated the amount to 100 k at the time it was a few years back and the total was actually under 60 k

[Bad Thoughts]

4. I'm glad my family got off the rental merry-go-round when we did

I'm not trying to moralize about financial responsibility and home ownership, but I know many of my wife's co-workers have seen both the housing and rental markets shift radically in our area, and they realize not only that they are stuck as renters, they must relocate farther from work.

My wife and I, just before the default in 2011, decided it was now or never. We blew all our savings to buy a little townhouse on an FHA loan. The loan payments were slightly higher than our rent, and we've had to keep buying a home warranty as we haven't been able to save consistently. If we had remained, we would have been screwed. The complex where we lived has been catering more to incoming tech workers, making more luxury upgrades to units and asking more money. Starting next year, rents will be $300 higher than what we pay for the loan, all the fees and insurances, taxes, HOA fees, and warranty.

[yellowcanine]

5. Renting makes a lot of sense after 65 or so.

Less ability/desire to do maintenance and rehabs yourself and the need for predictability in monthly expenses.
Also a need for more flexibility in where to live and when to move.

[jwirr]

6. Would be interesting to know how many of them are renting

a room in a relatives house because they cannot afford anything else. I am one of those.

[cemaphonic]

7. Probaby has something to do with job mobility in the current market too.

Buying a house is a good way to save money/hedge against inflation in the long term, but only if you are able to stay in the same house for a long time. If you are moving every few years, buying/selling expenses, and always being at the interest-heavy curve of the amortization schedule make it really hard to build up equity. Plus, there's the risk of being caught in a market downturn (which is likely to coincide with needing to find a new job in a new location).

[PasadenaTrudy]

8. Some of us

aren't interested in home ownership. I never was.
Here's a home, a flip, that just came on the market down the street from me. This is why people are renting!

https://www.redfin.com/CA/South-Pasadena/1945-Fletcher-Ave-91030/home/7008357

[PasadenaTrudy]

9. No door buzzard though

if you own a home, so there's that.

[Ichingcarpenter]

10. No one tied this to the loss of the middle class

or the growth of the 1%......LA times just reported the middle class is gone

Just anecdotal personal stories

You of course realize why this happening and who owns what now?

[Ichingcarpenter]

12. Do you know the absente land, home, duplex owners

Have more rights, power and say than the people that live there?
And that's locally if not nationally

And you think............... its not economic but social justice that is needed some say?
You can't have one without the other.

The native american thought how the whiteman looked at ownership of land and residence for someone was insane and inhuman.. I have deep connections on that side in my life

There is too many homeless right?

Well there is twice as many empty rental places than homeless and then they gouge the poor or middle class while getting tax breaks for their empty property.

Something is totally out of balance.

[MisterP]

11. but the developers say that without eternal growth of ever-pricier McMansions

the poor will have nowhere to live!

[Lancero]

13. I was raised poor...

But one thing my parents were proud of was that they actually owned a house.

The house was a piece of shit though. Seriously - We couldn't even use part of the house because the wall fell in and part of the floor had been ripped up (3 rooms in total. No real idea what one room was supposed to be, but one was a second bedroom and the other a bathroom. We'd shut off water to that bathroom and just used it as storage and put a lock on the door from that area to the livingroom.), the back porch couldn't be used after it collapsed as a result of water runoff from a pulled from the junkyard AC, the laundryroom as missing its ceiling after lighting punched a hole through the roof (We fixed the roof, but not the ceiling), the front roof supports (idk if that's what they were, but that's what my dad always said they were) eventually rotted away, some parts of the floor were very patchwork, and the rest of the floor itself was colored a delightful dust brown as a result of living right across from a lumberyard.

And a entire list of other minor issues. The house was a piece of shit, but still... it was OUR piece of shit.

I occasionally miss that pile of junk we called a house.

[yuiyoshida]

14. I am not 40-

but I rent in one of the highest rent Cities in the entire country. I can't move, can't afford to. Besides, where would I go?? Out of State? Naw... maybe San Diego, but than again, I would miss my beloved Japantown.