Yet in recent years, suburban rental markets have shifted significantly. This phenomenon is most acute surrounding large metro areas, such as Dallas. Tenants such as Mark have lived in their apartments for over three years. Now they face this bitter reality — homeownership is increasingly out of reach. Mark said remaining where he is at is “essentially not sustainable.” He can’t afford the much higher prices of similar properties.
This trend isn’t limited to Dallas. It’s part of a larger trend sweeping the United States. Andrew Decker, a renter in Lake Villa, Illinois, expressed a desire to purchase his current residence, offered to him for $340,000. But he would only buy if the house was offered at $200,000. These fictitious examples illustrate the growing anger among renters. They long for the security of homeownership, but skyrocketing prices are still a massive hurdle in their way.
The world of homebuying has changed massively since 2018. In 2012, it was significantly harder to purchase a home in Dallas County than in the surrounding suburban counties. Fast forward to 2023, and the playing field has turned upside down. Today, it’s more affordable to purchase homes in the suburban counties than in Dallas County proper. In reality, over that same two decades, 15 of those suburbs went from majority homeowners to majority renters.
Tara Raghuveer is the director of the Tenant Union Federation, a national tenant advocacy organization. She worries about the dangers that will come with this change. She noted that as people migrate from cities to suburbs they’re moving away from public transit. This change can further make it difficult for them to access job opportunities. This geographic spread can make the logistics and therefore access to childcare and other social services difficult.
Mark’s experience illuminates the financial stakes of this growing trend. He figures that the typical properties like his rental will have $1,200 monthly housing payments. These payments would be 30% more than his current payment. This persistently depressing condition has caused him to start seriously thinking about moving to a more affordable region where homeownership is more attainable.
The surge in rentership has been significant. Between 2018 and 2023, there was an increase of at least 5 percentage points in rentership in 11 out of 20 suburbs surrounding the largest U.S. metro areas. In the Dallas suburbs proper though, the share of residents that rent has jumped by 17.6% in just this past decade.
Housing expert Jay Parsons identifies the growth of “suburban downtowns” as one of the leading causes of this trend. The demand for these communities has skyrocketed, spurred in large part by the pandemic-era move to remote work. He focused on the good aspects of living in the suburbs. Residents are able to live near their places of employment and benefit from lower rents compared to costlier, high-demand urban cores.
George Ratiu of the National Apartment Association, vice president of research, echoed that sentiment regarding soaring home prices. He derided the $340,000 price tag for homes similar to Andrew Decker’s as “crazy.” That’s particularly true today, with average interest rates on widely used 30-year fixed mortgages hovering right below 7%. This rate ties the highest levels since before the 2008 financial crisis. Because of this, homeownership is an increasingly pipe dream for many would-be purchasers.
For renters such as Andrew Decker, the homeownership dream slips further from reach. He expressed his wish: “We would like to make it our forever home if we could afford it, but it’s just so expensive.” His feelings point to a growing exasperation. Everyone deserves the chance to plant roots, but working Americans are increasingly getting priced out of the communities they want to call home.
As the rental market further shifts during a time of persistent economic instability and increasing costs, renters are being left in the dark. The struggles they face tell the story of a national crisis in housing affordability and accessibility.