Demand for Single-Family Rentals Outpacing Supply

• November 13, 2012

by Shilpi Paul

The demand for single-family home rentals has now grown to surpass the supply, reported The Wall Street Journal on Tuesday morning. The inventory of single-family homes for rent in the U.S. has fallen by 11 percent compared to last year, according to the cited CoreLogic report, while leasing activity is up 12 percent since the beginning of 2012.

As demand for this property type has risen, so has the rent. Average rents have increased by 2 percent in 2011 and 1 percent so far this year and CoreLogic expects them to keep rising throughout 2013. Trulia Trends, which analyzes trends in asking rents every month, found that national asking rents rose 5.1 percent in October 2012 versus October 2011.

From the Wall Street Journal:

It would take just 2.6 months to rent the available stock of for-lease homes in August, down from 3.2 months of supply last year and over 5 months in 2007. It took just six weeks for a listing to be rented, which was unchanged from one year ago but down from more than eight weeks in 2009.

Renter demand has been increasing due to several factors, posits the Wall Street Journal. Many potential homeowners can’t qualify for mortgages that now have tighter requirements, and many families have lost their homes to foreclosure.

This article originally published at http://dc.urbanturf.com/articles/blog/demand_for_single-family_rentals_outpacing_supply/6295