The number of renter households is expected to increase five to six million in the next ten years above the nearly 40 million now in the housing stock, according to the National Association of Realtors (NAR). Even as Harvard University’s Joint Center for Housing Studies reports 162,000 one-time homeowners became renters between 2011 and 2012, the S&P/Case Shiller 20-city home price index rose 13.6 percent in the year ending last October, as the housing market indicates many signs of rebounding. Yet, as the commentator says in reuters.com, some cannot afford to buy because of tight credit, some do not want the responsibility of taking care of a home, and millions were burned by the dunking they took from underwater mortgages, as MHProNews understands. Gleb Nechayev of CBRE Econometric Advisors says, “That trauma of having lost their homes, or watching relatives or friends lose their homes, has certainly had an impact. Especially on the decisions of younger households and, in particular, first-time homebuyers.”
Others who could nominally afford a home are content to rent. Katlin Pickering, a 29-year-old corporate analyst in Asheville, North Carolina who once owned a home, says, “It just doesn’t make any sense to me. I don’t want to put myself in debt, I don’t want to spend all my time and money fixing a home, and I don’t want to be stuck in one place.”
