Economy
How Renters Benefitted From the Housing Crisis
The mortgage-industry collapse led to a dramatic increase in single-family rental housing. What happens when buyers want these houses back?
In the wake of the financial crisis, renters have gobbled up a lot of single-family homes. The number of renters hanging their hats in homes built for or once occupied by owners soared over the course of the Great Recession. It's a trend that Taz George, research associate* at the Urban Institute's Metropolitan Housing and Communities Policy Center, describes as one of the "unexpected legacies of the mortgage crisis."
Why was it so unexpected? Maybe we should have seen this wave coming.