In Defense of Rental Housing

One of my pet peeves has been the disproportionate focus on homeownership, both as a matter of federal policy (HUD's emphasis on homeownership, the number of homebuyer counseling agencies vs rental counseling agencies), and as a matter of local policy in the form of City of Waukesha's examination of the proportion of housing and deciding that they'd prefer a higher proportion of homeowners. The City of Waukesha is far from being alone in that.

The President of the National Multi-Housing Council did a stirring presentation to the Federal Reserve Board of Governors on April 28, 2009 on the need for rental housing. The presentation can be found here and the presentation plus the speech transcript can be found here .

The presentation makes four key points:

• America wants rental housing.


• America needs rental housing.


• Renters—be they affordable renters or lifestyle renters—are not second-class citizens.


• There is a growing disconnect between America's housing needs and its current housing policy.

This is something that suburban communities such as those in Metro Milwaukee area would be well-served to remember-that growth in the future includes a good range of rental housing options.