From now through 2015, the long slog that will unfortunately characterize the economic expansion will bring slow growth in jobs and wages. That pace of improvement should be just strong enough to permit new households to form, but not robust enough for the members of those households to afford to own homes
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Demographics also will deal home sellers and builders a clear blow. Not surprisingly, the home-ownership rate tends to rise with age. For example, while the overall U.S. rate is 67.2%, the rate for households headed by someone under 35 is just 38.9%.

Thus, whenever the age distribution of households tilts in favor of younger adults, the overall home-ownership rate declines.
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Largely because the echo boomers are more numerous than the baby busters, there are now more U.S. residents aged 15 to 29 than 30 to 44. So five years from now, the nation will have more 20-to-34-year-olds than 35-to-49-year-olds.
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Dallas-based Axiometrics tracks monthly price and occupancy data on apartments in 305 markets around the country. Its research chief, Jay Denton, reports that, on new leases written through this year’s first six months, effective rents—those after all concessions are taken into account—rose a robust 3.2%, after declining through 2009 and much of 2008. And occupancy growth, adds Denton, is close to the best he’s seen in the past 13 years.