Almost 4 million homes have been lost to foreclosures the past five years, turning many former owner-occupied homes into rentals.
The shift to rental housing is potentially long-lasting and portends changes for neighborhood stability and how people build wealth, economists say.
“The changes are big but glacial,” says Mark Zandi, economist at Moody’s Analytics.
From what I can see and I hear is that the rental market is hot hot hot, because the banks are in large measure leaving their homes empty rather than renting them out. We just upped the rent on our Boston home by $1800 a year after remaining 3-4 years flat.