Remote work, steep mortgage rates and new types of rental properties are fueling demand far from urban downtowns.
Renting is taking off in the suburbs as homeownership remains out of reach for many would-be buyers.
Between 2018 and 2023, rentership surged by at least 5 percentage points in 11 out of 20 suburbs surrounding the largest U.S. metro areas, according to a recent analysis by Point2Homes, a rental market research company.
During the same period, 15 suburbs went from being predominantly composed of homeowners to majority-renter communities. The trend spans fast-growing Sun Belt metros like Dallas, Houston and Miami as well as Northeastern cities like Boston and Philadelphia.
In five of those top 20 metro areas — Dallas, Minneapolis, Boston, Tampa and Baltimore — the suburbs are gaining renters faster than the urban centers they surround, Point2Homes found. The share of residents who rent surged in the Dallas suburbs by 17.6% from 2018 to 2023, while that rate rose just 7.9% in the city itself — with the nearby suburbs of Frisco, McKinney and Grand Prairie each gaining over 5,000 renter households apiece during that period.
I’m not calling you out specifically, I hope you don’t take offense, but I really hate the term “starter home”. Most of us will never own a home of any size so it comes off bougie.
When I bought it decades ago, it was far from bougie. However, those two works as a name communicated exactly what kind of house it was for the purposes of explaining the situation. What two word name do you believe would be more appropriate without being too verbose?
Would you be able to afford a $150k home?
I would just call it a house or a home. The implication for starter home to me is this is just until I get rich. Maybe I’m alone in thinking that way but I don’t care for people discussing their wealth publicly when so many have nothing.
Yes, I’m lucky enough that I could afford a home at that cost, with a mortgage of course. But I’m not getting much work right now (freelance contractor) and it could end up being a bad decision. So we stay in our $750 per month rented house for now.
That’s not nearly descriptive enough. At the description a “house” Is it a small 2 bedroom 800sq ft bungalow or is it a giant 6000sq ft sprawling estate? With “starter home” the audience could tell exactly that I meant the small place.
That’s not the “start” the “starter home” is referring to historically. It means “starting to live on your own” and “having to house just yourself”. For most, it means two people, and maybe a very young child. As you age, your family living space can change. This could mean from having more kids to housing your elderly parents.
You’re welcome to your own opinion, but I think its too far to try to make discussing owning a home to be a taboo subject.
Certainly with a mortgage. I still consider that "affording a house. Those houses at $150k, and many cheaper are available right now for ownership in LCOL cities and towns, which is where mine was when I bought it decades ago.