Wondering why the future for housing as an asset is so bleak, why median housing prices continue to tumble and recently saw their biggest three month drop [8]ever, and why there is no bottom in sight? Simple: the American public appears to have woken up to the reality that homes are no longer a flippable asset, and in fact continue to drop in price, an observation that is obvious to virtually all now. So what happens next? Why renting of course. Here is Morgan Stanley explaining (granted in a pitchbook for REITs but the underlying data is quite useful) why the Housing 2.0 paradigm is all about renting.
From MS' Oliver Chang:
Across the country, more Americans are becoming home renters, and fewer Americans are becoming homeowners. The beginning of the rentership society is upon us. But all renters are not equal – of the roughly 40MM rental housing units in the country (representing roughly $6 trillion in asset value), about half are multi-family and half are single- family. In this joint report between our US Fixed Income Housing Strategists and US REIT research teams, with contributions from our Chief US Equity Strategist and Large-Cap Banks Analyst, we take a closer look at what the growth of the rentership society implies for both the single and the multi-family rental markets. What opportunities will be created? How will the two sides of the rental market benefit from this transition? What are the greater implications for those industries closely tied to the development and financing of single and multi-family housing? And most importantly – how can institutional investors participate in these opportunities and position themselves for this change?
Full report below: