WSJ Your Money Briefing - Giving Up the Deed: Is Renting the New American Dream?

Episode Date: June 25, 2026

Some Americans are trading deeds for leases as homeownership becomes harder to afford. WSJ personal finance reporter Veronica Dagher joins What's News host Alex Ossola to examine the rise of the "forever renter" and what it could mean for the future of housing and the American Dream. Listen to all episodes in our series on ideas for fixing the housing crisis. Further reading:  The Rise of the Forever Renters  Sign up for the WSJ's free What's News newsletter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Hey everyone. Imani Moise here from the Wall Street Journal. Your money briefing is still on a hiatus, but we're dropping into your feed with the next installment of our special series. 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 cost of homeownership continued 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. What's News host Alex Osala examines the rise of forever renters,

and whether the American dream is slipping away or simply evolving. That's after the break. Visit BetMGM Casino and check out the newest exclusive. The Price is Right Fortune Pick. BetMDM and GameSense remind you to play responsibly, 19 plus to wager. Ontario only. Please play responsibly. If you have questions or concerns about your gambling or someone close to you,

please contact connects Ontario at 1-866-531-2,600 to speak to an advisor, free of charge. BetMGM operates pursuant to an operating agreement with Eye Gaming, Ontario. 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 Czech's cash 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 clubroom, fire pits, and hammocks.

Very attractive things for someone like Kathy Steinbaum, who moved to Hackensack six months ago. 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 want to say roughly like 2685 is what we're starting at.

In Hackensack, I visited ORA, one of these luxury rental buildings that builds itself as a boutique experience. That's the development Kathy moved into after she sold her condo. And then you also have an amenity fee. If you had a pet, there's things involved with that. 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 Oscella, 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? 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 the, 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. Got it. Okay. Why would someone choose to rent when they could afford to buy? 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 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. 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%. 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? That says a lot to some of the structural barriers out there, like the supply shortage of homes in the last couple 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. When did you first start noticing that more people were deciding to just be long-term renters instead of buying their homes? 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. 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.

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, it gets high. When I left, I was paying like $17.50 a month. She's actually paying more right now to rent her Hackensack 2 bedroom, over $4,000 a month. 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? 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. 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 Arbell 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.

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