Recovery will be led by renters, new study finds

The U.S. housing market’s recovery will be led by renters and multi-unit developments, data released today by the Demand Institute, an independent consumer research organization, predicted. The report found that 50 percent of those planning to move in the next two years say they will rent, not buy. This demand for rentals is helping to clear the supply of foreclosed single-family homes — 13 percent of all mortgages were foreclosed upon in 2011 — as developers convert them into multiple units for rent.

The data also shows that the only sector of the building industry that’s demonstrating clear signs of recovery is the development of multi-family homes, with 178,200 new multifamily units started in 2011 — up 54 percent over 2010

Last week, The Real Deal reported that the nationwide housing market is bottoming out based on data from Fiserv-Case Shiller. Today the Demand Institute’s report confirmed that study, adding that “this housing recovery will be different in nature from previous recoveries because it will be shaped by new market conditions and expectations.”

Although these findings spell good news for certain sectors of the national market, the institute’s report acknowledged that the recovery will play out very differently in some locations according to specific economic factors. — Christopher Cameron