Trulia recently reported the shift in homeowners to renters, a phenomenon that has shifted the real estate market substantially since the housing market crash. According to American Community Survey data, between 2006 and 2014, the amount of renters increased 5 percent to 43.3 percent.
Among those that were significantly impacted, older millennials, Hispanic households and the upper-middle class and wealthy most prominently shifted from being owners to renters.
Each metro has a different shift in renters. In San Francisco, a reported 53.7 percent of its population were renters in 2014, which was a 3.3 percent increase over 2006.
Rents have substantially increased in SF, but that didn’t stop renters. The median rent in 2006 was $1,230 and in 2014 it was $1,645. That makes for a 33.7 percent change in rental prices.