According to a story related to Professional Builder magazine's "Giant 400" survey, builders of rental housing sailed through 2007 while those building 'for sale' housing suffered:
Six of the 10 rental kingpins finished more units in 2007 than in 2006, while the single-family builders are all down.
"Rental is the flip side of ownership housing," says NAHB economist Dr. Bernie Markstein III. "Right now, with foreclosures rising and people reluctant to buy homes, the rental market is benefiting from the woes in ownership housing. Condo sales are falling for the same reasons as single-family detached, and when that happens in the condo market, a lot of those units wind up back in the rental market, at least temporarily." That phenomenon kept vacancy rates higher in some markets, but they're now dropping again...
Markstein predicts another upswing in luxury renters-by-choice in many markets.
"Since home appreciation rates are likely to be flat for several years to come, there's not as much motivation for young, high-income couples to buy," he says. Such couples may opt for well-located rental apartments and put off owning a home until prices really start to recover.
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