More people renting, landlords making more money

More people over 40 years of age are renting.  In fact, the US Census Bureau reports that 51% of households headed by 40+ers now rent.  This number is up from 43% twenty years ago.  I don’t think most of that is by choice.  The financial crisis uprooted about that many homeowners, and with a stumbling economy of part-time and low paying jobs, many people have not found their footing enough to once again become homeowners.

Thanks to the Fed, those homes taken from former lower and middle income homeowners wound up in the hands of Wall Street hedge funds, who made rentals out of them.  That play has not suited the former homeowners very well.  Between 2001 and 2014, while the national average income has fallen by 9%, rents have increased 7%.  Call that a double whammy that makes buying a home look like a great deal.