Giving Up the Deed: Is Renting the New American Dream?

0:00Alex Ossola:Isn't home where we all want to be? Reba here for Realtor.com, the Pro's number one most trusted app. Finding a home is like dating. You're searching for the one. With over 500 ,000 new listings every month, you could find the one today. Download the Realtor.com app because you're nearly home. Make it real with Realtor.com. Pro's number one most trusted app based on August 2025 proprietary survey. Over 500 ,000 new listings every month based on average new for sale and rental listings, July 2024 to June 2025. Hey everyone, Imani Moise here from the Wall Street Journal. Your money briefing is still on hiatus, but we're dropping into your feed with the next installment of our special series.

0:40Alex Ossola:Today we're diving back into the single biggest financial hurdle Americans are dealing with right now. Housing. Homeownership has been synonymous with the American dream. But what happens when that dream no longer makes financial sense? As the costs of homeownership continue to rise, renting is becoming less of a temporary stop and more of a lifestyle. In this episode, we're looking at the people who are trading in their deeds for leases. West News host Alex Osola examines the rise of forever renters and whether the American dream is slipping away or simply evolving. That's after the... Access to affordable credit helps me pay my employees, but I don't really need it.

1:20Alex Ossola:Infliction is killing me. But who cares? Big retailers are making record profits. That's why we support the Durbin Marshall credit card bill. See? Banks and credit unions help small businesses make payroll. This bill would cut the vital resources they need. While increasing megastore profits. They deserve it. Don't they? Tell Congress, stop the Durbin Marshall money grab for corporate megastores. Paid for by the Electronic Payments Coalition. Break.

2:03Alex 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 cheques-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.

2:39Alex Ossola:I 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. 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.

3:18Veronica Dagher:And then you also have an amenity fee. If you had a pet, there's things involved with that.

3:22Alex Ossola: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. They're trading home ownership for renting or never leaving the lease life in the first place. I'm Alex Osula, and today we're talking about the renter revolution. I'm joined now by WSJ personal finance reporter Veronica Dagger. Veronica, I want to start by talking about these luxury rental developments like the one in Hackensack that I visited. Where have we seen these being built and why are they so appealing?

3:58Veronica Dagher:So we're seeing these high-end rental communities springing up far beyond the traditional coastal metro. So you were seeing a lot in New York and some of L.A., of course. But we're seeing them get traction in other cities like some of these so-called overflow markets like Bridgeport in Connecticut or Providence, Rhode Island. And these have an appeal because they offer luxury without the commitment of buying a home. You'll see things like high-end fixtures and beautiful landscapes and rooftop pools and bars and co-working spaces and gyms and all these great kids' rooms. Of course, you're paying for all that, but you get all that without the headache of the mortgage or the property taxes or having to mow the lawn.

4:45Alex Ossola:Got it. Okay. Why would someone choose to rent when they could afford to buy?

4:50Veronica 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.

5:26Veronica 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.

5:36Alex Ossola:Veronica, I was checking some data on this. 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 % 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?

5:58Veronica 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.

6:30Alex Ossola:When did you first start noticing that more people were deciding to just be long-term renters instead of buying their homes?

6:37Veronica 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.

7:14Veronica 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.

7:39Alex Ossola:Like Kathy Steinbaum, who we heard from earlier. I came from a full-service concierge building, so amenities were important. Package room, gym, that kind of thing. 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 high. When I left, I was paying like$1 ,750 a month. She's actually paying more right now to rent her Hackensack two-bedroom, over$4 ,000 a month.

8:24Alex Ossola: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. Veronica, you said that for a lot of people, it just makes more financial sense to rent than buy. When you own a home, what are some of the costs you have to pay besides the mortgage as opposed to just rent?

8:43Veronica Dagher:You've got other costs like home insurance, property taxes, HOA dues if you live in a HOA. All three of those line items for most people in the United States, those numbers are going up and in some cases going up a lot. and you have zero control over most of those numbers. Whereas if you're a renter, you probably need renter's insurance, but it's not going to cost you nearly as much. You need to look at a home as a place to live because if you compare all the money you poured into your home versus that same amount of money put into the stock market over, say, like a similar period of 30 years, you'd probably make a lot more money in the stock market.

9:21Alex Ossola:That was WSJ personal finance reporter Veronica Dagger. Thanks so much, Veronica. Thanks, Alex. And that's it for this special episode of Your Money Briefing. This episode was produced by Danny Lewis with sound design by Michael LaValle. Tali Arbel is our supervising producer. And I'm Alex Osala. Tune in tomorrow for our Q &A with real estate editor Craig Carman. He'll be answering listeners' questions about the housing crisis and the potential solutions that we've discussed this week. That'll be in your feed same time tomorrow.

9:54Alex Ossola:This episode is brought to you by Charles Schwab. Decisions made in Washington can affect your portfolio every day. Washington Wise from Charles Schwab is an original podcast that unpacks the stories making news in Washington. Listen at schwab.com slash Washington Wise.