Apartment Living Could Lead to Greater Wealth Creation Than Owning via Multifamily Executive Magazine

Michael Pestronk picked a funny time to begin an apartment company. “It was 2007, and every single person wanted to buy,” says the president of Philadelphia-based Post Brothers, which has since built a portfolio of 1,500 rental units in and around the City of Brotherly Love. “People just wanted to own. They overlooked rational analysis. Now, people are realizing, ‘Wow, if I want to own, it’s going to cost more per month compared to a rental, and if I need to move in the next five years, I’m not going to make out well on the investment.’?”

Call it a readjustment to rationality. Call it renter nation. But whatever you call it, consumers seem to be finding more economic value renting right now as opposed to buying. “People have begun to realize that the for-sale market [has] real risks associated with it,” says Christine Aragon, president of Santa Monica, Calif.–based apartment ILS Rent.com. “I think that’s the more permanent shift. Whether people will have a long-term, sustained preference for renting versus owning is going a little too far out on a limb.”

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