Good news, the US is recovering from the housing crisis. Not so good news, the number of people owning houses hasn’t changed much. From 2006 to 2016, 7.6 million households were added to the US population. If the trend from the previous ten years had continued, about 10 million more households would be owners, not renters. Instead, the number of homeowners dropped by about 1.1 million. All of the growth was in renters, approaching a record high of 37% set in 1965. People want to buy, but can’t or won’t. Finances are the biggest worry. The growth in home ownership has been a key component of the US economy for decades, but it has flattened. Wage growth is also relatively flat. Affordable housing is a major issue in several cities and regions. The response has been to build more rental units than conventional houses. The flattening of home ownership may represent a new economic era that will rely on different instruments than the Baby Boom suburban sprawl and upwardly mobile growth model. Old assumptions may no longer be valid.
“More US Households Are Renting Than At Any Point In 50 Years” – Pew Research
Pretending Not To Panic 
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