When Joanne LaZette was looking for a new home in Mesa, Ariz., in 2022, she knew she didn't want an apartment. Hallways filled with screaming kids? No, thanks.
But homeownership has its own troubles, like a hefty price tag — and for LaZette, the responsibility of maintaining a place on her own at age 87.
Instead, LaZette found a way to avoid both apartments and ownership. She rented a brand-new house that was specifically built not for sale, but for tenants like her.
"I share no walls with anybody, and it's like having my own private little house that I just rent," LaZette said.
About 7% of new single-family houses hitting the market are now for rent, not sale. More than 10 times as many "build-to-rent" homes were completed in the U.S. in 2024 as compared with a decade earlier.
Many of these are being constructed by firms that specialize in build-to-rent housing, like NexMetro, which develops and owns single-family rental homes in the Sun Belt, a hot market for these properties. That's where populations are growing and there's plenty of land. Ohio and Utah have also seen a boom.
When NexMetro CEO Josh Hartmann started building these houses in 2009, in the aftermath of the financial crisis, he expected to get homeowners who had faced foreclosure and could no longer afford owning but still wanted the same home lifestyle.
Instead, Hartmann said most of his residents have been young professionals, who were more likely to be pet owners than parents. Many wanted to live in a single-family home but either were not ready or were uninterested in homeownership.
"It's just a lifestyle choice," said Hartmann. "They're kind of figuring out where they want to live. They don't want to buy a house yet."
Others are older residents unwilling to buy and maintain a house late in life.
Supporters like Hartmann say these new constructions help make both renting and buying more affordable. They drive down housing costs for both by boosting housing supply.
"Homeownership has gotten so far out of the reach of most people," said LaZette, who rents a NexMetro home. "This trend, I think, is a godsend ."
A bigger supply of available homes
The U.S. is in a housing affordability crisis. An American family needs to make $110,000 a year to own a typical home, according to the real estate broker Redfin. That's about 29% higher than what the median household makes.
The biggest problem with the American housing market is a lack of supply, said Laurie Goodman, founder of the Housing Finance Policy Center at the Urban Institute. New U.S. households are forming faster than new units — from apartments to houses — are being built, according to realtor.com, which estimated the overall housing shortfall at just over 4 million in 2025.
While speaking at the World Economic Forum in January, President Trump said that the U.S. will not become a "nation of renters" and called for Congress to ban large investors from buying up single-family homes and turning them into rentals. But his own executive order restricting those purchases has language to ensure that investors can keep developing new build-to-rent homes.
Last week, the average rate for a 30-year, fixed-rate mortgage dipped below 6% for the first time since 2022, which could make buying more affordable for some home-seekers. But if more buyers enter the housing market without an uptick in supply, prices could shoot up and erase any affordability gains, according to a recent report from realtor.com.
That is why Goodman believes build-to-rent is a boon, since these houses would have otherwise not been built. More supply — be it for rent or buying — lowers housing prices for both groups.
"Build-to-rent is a win-win all around," Goodman said.
Build-to-rent can turn "not in my backyard" into a "yes"
Homeownership has long been a central part of American culture; it's a way to put down roots in a community. and one of the main ways people build wealth.
But that may be changing as more people embrace long-term renting. A recent survey of 1,000 Americans renting single-family homes conducted by the Center for Generational Kinetics, a research center studying the different mindsets between generations, found that only 8% of those renters defined the American dream as owning a home.
Still, the real estate world is short on supply for renters too. In 2024, the U.S. had about 800,000 fewer single-family houses for rent compared with a decade earlier, according to the National Association of Realtors. Some of that is due to investors selling off their rental houses to homebuyers.
" Do we need more homes for sale? Absolutely," said Jay Parsons, a rental housing economist and independent consultant. " But that shouldn't come at the expense of renters. We need more rental homes too."
One of the biggest barriers to building more rental units can be local opposition to apartment construction.
"Everyone wants attainable housing, just not near their house," said Hartmann.
Hartmann said residents often push back on a company's plans, fearing the company will build tall apartment buildings that they worry will ruin the charm of their neighborhood. But the homes NexMetro builds are stand-alone, each a single story and half the size of a traditional home. Hartmann calls them "cottages." He said a lot of worries go away when neighbors come to local meetings and see the plans.
"They see our little homes, our cottages, and they're like, 'Oh, yeah. I like that,'" Hartmann said.
Homebuying builds equity, but for tenants, choosing not to buy isn't necessarily a bad financial move.
In fact, renting is cheaper than owning in the country's 100 largest metros, according to LendingTree. Renters who invest what they save on housing can also build wealth.
Plus, some like Mona Gass just prefer the ease of renting. She has the money to own, but why? She has rented for half her life and enjoys being able to just call maintenance.
"Am I throwing my money away? Maybe," said Gass. "But I don't have to fix anything."
She's currently renting a three-bedroom NexMetro home — brand-new when she got the key in 2019 — with her mother in Mesa, Arizona. In a way, renting has become part of her identity.
"I'm gonna rent," Gass said. "That's what I do."
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