With Homeownership Out of Reach, Some Are Choosing to Rent Forever

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0:32Alex Ossola:The Supreme Court hands down a flurry of decisions, including two that empower President Trump's immigration agenda. Plus, we've got the latest on the earthquake in Venezuela, which could be one of the deadliest in the country's history. We're still waiting on a clearer assessment from authorities. We're expecting the death toll and the injury toll and lots more damage reported in the upcoming hours and days. And as it becomes more expensive to own a home, some people are choosing to just keep on renting instead. It's Thursday, June 25th. I'm Alex Oseleff for The Wall Street Journal. This is the PM edition of What's News, the top headlines and business stories that move the world today.

1:18Alex Ossola:The Supreme Court handed down a few consequential decisions today. The court allowed President Trump to take away legal protections from hundreds of thousands of immigrants in the U.S. for humanitarian reasons. Those immigrants had what's called Temporary Protected Status, or TPS, under a program Congress created in 1990 for migrants whose home countries are hit by armed conflicts, natural disasters, or epidemics. In a 6-3 decision, the court said it didn't have much power to review the executive branch's decisions on the program. Journal Supreme Court reporter James Ramoser says the decision has an immediate impact on immigrants from Haiti and Syria.

1:54When Trump returned to office last year, there were 17 countries that had protections under TPS. Trump moved to revoke the TPS protections from 13 of those 17 countries. The Haiti and Syria cases are the two that arrived on appeal at the Supreme Court, and those are the decisions that came today. What it means immediately is that Trump can end TPS status for about 350 ,000 immigrants from Haiti and about 6 ,000 immigrants from Syria. It also will likely pave the way for him to revoke TPS protections for a number of other countries that have had it.

2:32Alex Ossola:A second immigration decision allows the administration to turn asylum seekers away at the U.S.-Mexico border. What the court said in that case is that the administration is allowed to essentially bar people from stepping foot onto U.S. soil where they would have the right to claim asylum. So the two decisions taken in tandem, the TPS case and the asylum case, have the effect of broadening Trump's authority to enact his second term immigration crackdown. Next up, the Supreme Court ruled that Bayer couldn't be held liable for failing to warn consumers about the cancer risks of its popular weed killer, Roundup.

3:10Alex Ossola:Patrick Thomas, who covers agriculture for the journal, says the decision is a big deal for Bayer, which produces about half the world's glyphosate, the active ingredient in Roundup. So this is a massive victory. Roundup generates billions of dollars for Bayer. They've been involved in this litigation for almost a decade since Bayer bought Monsanto, but since then they've had hundreds of thousands of lawsuits basically claiming that this weed killer causes cancer. The EPA has repeatedly determined that glyphosate does not cause cancer in humans and doesn't need a label at the federal level that includes a cancer warning.

3:45And what today's ruling affirms is that because at the federal level you don't need that cancer warning. Individual states cannot ask for some kind of additional warning. This takes away a lot of the leverage from plaintiff's lawyers who have been going after the company for a number of years and gives them more incentive to try and settle with the company.

4:05Alex Ossola:A Bayer spokesperson said the decision was, quote, good for science, farmers and industries that depend on regulatory clarity for innovation. Bayer shares closed up about 19 percent. And finally, the court also struck down a Hawaii law stopping guns from being carried into public-facing, privately-owned locations, like gas stations and supermarkets, without the property owner's permission. It's the latest decision to expand the Second Amendment right to bear arms. The Supreme Court justices are scrambling to finish their work before taking their summer recess, which typically begins in early July.

4:37Alex Ossola:Separately, a federal judge today blocked key portions of President Trump's executive order that would create lists of eligible voters. The judge in Massachusetts declared steps outlined in the executive order to be, quote, legally void, and she ordered agencies to stop implementing the directives immediately. It's one of a string of court defeats this week for the administration's efforts on elections. In markets news, U.S. indexes ended the day mixed. The Dow was up about 0.1 percent, and the S &P 500 was flat. Micron kept on soaring after its blockbuster results earlier this week. It was up almost 16 % today.

5:14Alex Ossola:But worries about AI spending weighed on the Nasdaq, which fell about half a percent. Apple stock was down more than 6 % after the company announced it was raising prices of its Mac computers and iPads. Crude oil futures turned about 2 % higher today, pausing a decline that has brought prices down around pre-Iran war levels. The run-up in energy costs over the past few months was clear in the latest inflation data out today. the personal consumption expenditures price index rose 4.1 percent in May compared to a year earlier. That's its highest reading since April 2023. JPMorgan Chase has promoted two men to be presidents of the firm.

5:51Alex Ossola:That puts Doug Pettno and Troy Rohrbaugh in line to take over as CEO of the bank once Jamie Dimon steps aside. People familiar with the matter said Dimon is expecting to keep the top spot for another three years. We've got the latest on the aftermath of yesterday's powerful earthquakes in Venezuela. The death toll has risen to 188, with thousands more if you're trapped in the rubble. The U.S. Geological Survey is projecting a death toll in the tens of thousands and billions of dollars in losses. President Trump said the U.S. stood, quote, ready, willing and able to help, and had ordered federal agencies to prepare a rapid response.

6:29Alex Ossola:Journal reporter Cajal Vias is based in nearby Colombia, and he says the aftermath could change Venezuela's relationship with the U.S. and China. With these earthquake relief efforts, the expectations are that we're going to see a huge influx of private sector actors, companies, charity groups, relief organizations, and even U.S. support teams coming in to help with reconstruction. it's likely to give the U.S. a huge hand up in terms of regaining the influence on the ground that they had lost to China during so many years of hostile relations. And we're exclusively reporting that Iran attacked a cargo ship in the Strait of Hormuz today.

7:09Alex Ossola:That's despite a deal signed last week by the U.S. and Iran to end the fighting and reopen the shipping lane. The White House didn't immediately respond to a request for comment on the attack or its bearing on the deal. Coming up, why might someone choose to rent a home when they could buy? We've got the next installment of our housing series after the break.

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8:09Alex Ossola:Earlier this month, I took a day trip from New York City to visit Hackensack, a city in New Jersey that's about 12 miles from midtown Manhattan. It's a city that has had some pretty dramatic redevelopment in the past few years. And it's easy to see. Low apartment buildings and Czechs cached storefronts sit right next to gleaming new luxury residences. These new buildings are popping up all over downtown Hackensack. They're modern buildings with all sorts of amenities. A concierge, a club room, fire pits, and hammocks. Very attractive things for someone like Kathy Steinbaum, who moved to Hackensack six months ago.

8:45I was a Fort Lee resident in a condominium for 27 years. So I was a homeowner. Based on my age, coming to 64, I'm not going to retire in that condominium because the costs are way too high. So I made the choice to sell my house.

9:03Alex Ossola:She sold her home in order to rent, though the rent isn't exactly cheap. And how much would a one-bedroom like this rent for? I would say roughly like$26.85 is what we're starting at. In Hackensack, I visited Aura, one of these luxury rental buildings that bills itself as a boutique experience. That's the development Kathy moved into after she sold her condo. And then you also have an amenity fee. If you had a pet, there's things involved with that. There's parking, obviously, which is another fee. It may sound like a lot, but here's the thing. As buying a home becomes more and more expensive, many Americans are making the same decision as Kathy.

9:39Alex Ossola:They're trading home ownership for renting or never leaving the lease life in the first place. I'm joined now by WSJ personal finance reporter Veronica Dagger. Veronica, why would someone choose to rent when they could afford to buy?

9:55Veronica Dagher:There's the flexibility aspect of it. You know, if you're young and you're mobile and you want to move around, you want to spend most of your budget on things like travel, you'd rather invest in the stock market. also in most markets in the U.S., it still makes more financial sense to rent versus buy when you do the math. And some of that stigma that traditionally surrounded renting is disappearing. Of course, when you go visit your friend who's got an infinity pool in this beautiful complex they rent at, it's hard to feel bad for them. It's not like in the past where someone says, like, oh, I'm renting.

10:31Veronica Dagher:And you're like, oh, they must be having financial issues. No, we're seeing a lot of upper middle class and wealthy people deciding to rent because they don't want the headache of maintaining a property.

10:41Alex Ossola:According to the U.S. Census, home ownership in the first quarter of 2026 was 65.3 percent. That's actually not that much higher than the 62.9 percent for the first quarter for which data is available overall way back in 1965. So what does that tell us about the state of home ownership in the U.S. and the broader economy?

11:00Veronica Dagher:That says a lot to some of the structural barriers out there, like the supply shortage of homes in the last couple of years and people's incomes aren't keeping up with how much home prices are rising. And so there's this big widening gap between what people earn and what they can actually buy. Those issues have only become worse because so many folks who have had their home for many years, they may have refinanced during the pandemic. They may have super low mortgage rates. They're not putting their home on the market. And there's so many fewer homes for sale.

11:33Alex Ossola:When did you first start noticing that more people were deciding to just be long-term renters instead of buying their homes?

11:39Veronica Dagher:It started around the pandemic housing frenzy, but it's only picked up steam. Part of this is because affordability is still strained. There's still very few homes to buy in many of these desirable markets. And people don't want to get involved with the bidding wars that are still happening in places like northern New Jersey or Boston. And so they are fundamentally rethinking the idea of becoming homeowners in certain cases. There's a consulting firm called John Burns Consulting, and they were telling me about how Gen Z is approaching this as well. They're almost seeing renting as a subscription, and they like being able to move anytime they want.

12:17Veronica Dagher:And John Burns Consulting was also telling me they're seeing some older folks gravitating towards this. They want to downsize their house, but they don't want to move to assisted living yet. So they're looking for something in the meantime because they don't want to take care of their yard or they don't want to have to worry about redoing the roof or they're moving to be closer to the grandkids. Those folks are on the margins, but that is increasing as a population who's looking to rent. Like Kathy Steinbaum, who we heard from earlier. I came from a full service concierge building. So amenities were important.

12:51Package room, gym, that kind of thing.

12:54Alex Ossola:Kathy says her old home in nearby Fort Lee, New Jersey, just became too expensive to stay in, even after having paid off her mortgage. Those high rises in Fort Lee, you know, they're older buildings. So the maintenance required to operate those buildings and continue with capital improvements and assessments and everything gets it gets high. When I left, I was paying like$17.50 a month. She's actually paying more right now to rent her Hackensack two-bedroom, over$4 ,000 a month. Leaving a rental, though, is much easier than selling a home. And ultimately, Kathy says she would want to buy a new home in the next few years.

13:35Alex Ossola:You can listen to the full version of our look at long-term renters over at our Your Money Briefing podcast. And tune in tomorrow morning for the final installment of our housing series, our Q &A with Wall Street Journal real estate editor Craig Carman. He'll be answering questions from listeners like you about the housing crisis and the possible solutions we discussed this week. And that's what's news for this Thursday afternoon. Today's show was produced by Anthony Bansi and Danny Lewis. Our supervising producer was Pierre Bien-Aimé. I'm Alex Oselev for The Wall Street Journal. We'll be back with a new show tomorrow morning.

14:08Alex Ossola:Thanks for listening.

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