US single-family homes built-for-rent declined to approximately 2,000 starts for 1Q 2015, compared to about 4,000 at the start of 2014. The share and count of built-for-rent starts are off post-recession highs and will approach historical norms as the housing market continues to expand. However, given the relatively small size of this market, care must be taken when tracing changes in the estimates.
According to data from the Census Bureau’s Quarterly Starts and Completions by Purpose and Design and NAHB analysis, the market share of single-family homes built-for-rent, as measured on a one-year moving average, stands at 3.5 per cent of total single-family starts for 1Q 2015. It is worth noting that the estimates for this market segment are small, so that quarter to quarter movements are typically not statistically significant.
The current market share remains higher than the historical average of 2.8 per cent but is down from the 5.8 per cdent registered at the start of 2013.This class of single-family construction only includes homes built and held for rental purposes.