'Rentership Society' Causing Stress, Fueling Housing Crisis

High housing prices and high rents are becoming more and more connected as recent research shows 58 percent of 1,300 renters feel "stressed" about their rent, with many survey respondents claiming they can't save for future purchases, like a house.

The U.S. currently has a 7.3 percent national vacancy rate, despite apartment construction in core cities, as the new buildings are too costly for many renters. Meanwhile, many cities on the west coast in particular are experiencing overcrowding. Joel Kotkin's analysis in Forbes and NewGeography claims this stress points to a larger crisis -- the number of home purchases is in decline, negatively affecting the U.S. GDP.

The home-buying struggles of Americans, particularly millennials, have been well documented. Yet a recent study by Hunt.com found that the often-proposed “solution” of renting is not much of a panacea. Rents as a percentage of income, according to Zillow, are now at a historic high of 29.1 percent, compared with the 25.8 percent rate that prevailed from 1985 to 2000.

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