Landlord Nation: Boomers’ New Retirement Plan Is Millennials Paying Rent

Redfin Chief Executive Glenn Kelman calls it “Landlord Nation”, a group of mom-and-pop investors who have seized on low mortgage rates and robust rent growth to plow savings into rental properties. Together, they’ve lifted the percentage of single-family houses used as rental properties to stratospheric heights, even as many would-be first-time home buyers struggle to reach ignition. The share of single-family homes used as rental properties, meanwhile, has surged to a 30-year high, according to a Zillow analysis of data from the U.S. census. Separate data provided by RealtyTrac show that only 65 percent of homes purchased in 2015 are owner-occupied. The seeds of Kelman’s Landlord Nation were planted in the boom times before the last recession, when easy credit helped millions of Americans buy their first homes, pushing home ownership rates to all-time highs. Then the housing bubble burst. Rampant unemployment and exploding interest rates pushed millions of homeowners into foreclosure, creating a ripe patch of cheap housing for would-be landlords—and a new pool of renters to absorb the supply.

Source/more: Bloomberg

David Wingate is an elder law attorney at the Elder Law Office of David Wingate, LLC. The elder law office services clients with powers of attorneys, living wills, Wills, Trusts, Medicaid and asset protection. The Elder Law office has locations in Frederick and Montgomery Counties, Maryland.