A long note from housing economist Tom Lawler:
While accurate and timely data on the size of the single-family rental market are not available, virtually all surveys suggest that the size of the single-family rental market surged from the end of 2007 through the end of last year. Below are some stats on the renter share of either the occupied single-family housing market (detached and attached, ACS and AHS) or the one-unit housing market (AHS, which includes manufactured housing, and is derived from detailed tables not shown in the press release).
While comparisons of these surveys with decennial Census results suggest that none of the surveys provide a particularly good “snapshot” of the overall US housing market, the fact that all surveys point to a sharp increase in the size of the SF rental market is quite consistent with anecdotal and other regional reports.