House Rentals Outnumber High-Rises

• April 24, 2012

by UrbanTurf Staff

Do you rent in a row house or a high-rise? A new report reveals that it is probably the former.

A recent Wall Street Journal article reported on statistics from CoreLogic that say the number of smaller homes (1-4 units) being rented in the U.S. exceeds that of buildings with 5 or more units.

From the WSJ:

CoreLogic economist Sam Khater, who crunched Census numbers, [determined] that about 20.7 million rentals are in 1-to-4 unit homes, including both detached and attached homes, compared with about 17.1 million rentals in buildings with 5-or-more units. About 1.87 million American households are in mobile homes, RVs, boats, or vans.

The article intimates that this trend will likely continue, at least nationwide, as Wall Street firms invest in foreclosed properties and the possibility of the government renting out foreclosures, continues to be…a possibility.

However, with the number of new rental units coming online in the region, the DC area may buck the trend. In January, Delta Associates vice president Grant Montgomery told UrbanTurf that over 6,200 investment grade rental units started construction in the fourth quarter of 2011, the largest number that the firm has seen in 18 years, and over 23,000 new units are expected to deliver in the metro region in 2012 and 2013. The overwhelming majority of these apartments will be in buildings of more than 5 units.

This article originally published at http://dc.urbanturf.com/articles/blog/rentals_in_houses_outnumber_high-rises/5455