A growing percentage of renters believe it is better to rent than buy a home, which helps explains why the homeownership rate remains persistently low nearly a decade after the housing crash.
A boom in apartment construction in the past few years has caused rent increases to begin to level off in many U.S. cities, while home price gains have accelerated over the past year. As a result, roughly 76% of renters in August said they believe renting is more affordable than owning, up from 65% in September 2016, according to survey results from Freddie Mac expected to be released Wednesday.