Key Insights into the Single-Family Rental Industry
HUD, Labor Market Update, SFR Occupancies, Interest Rates
by David Howard
The National Rental Home Council (NRHC) serves as the trade association for the single-family rental (SFR) home industry. NRHC members include owner-operators, builders, vendors, and service providers of single-family rental homes across the country.
As part of our mission to provide market research and other tools to guide members through the ever-evolving housing market landscape, this article contains key insights.
Turner Outlines Priorities
In an interview this week with the Wall Street Journal, newly confirmed Secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Scott Turner, discussed his priorities for the agency. At the top of the list is the privatization of the government-sponsored entities Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Because the effort to privatize the GSEs involves a number of federal agencies, Turner remarked HUD would work with the Department of Treasury and Congress and would serve as a “quarterback” in the process.
Other priorities include moving quickly to launch a broad review to address agency inefficiencies in order to streamline operations and lower housing costs. Finally, Turner is considering a name change of HUD to reflect the reach of the agency beyond urban markets, namely, rural and tribal communities.
Labor Market Update
The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported that total non-farm employment increased by 143k jobs between December 2024 and January 2025. Bloomberg reported that the increase was less than economists’ forecasts. The unemployment rate fell to 4.0%, a slight decrease from the previous month. Key sectors driving this change were health care (+44k), retail trade (+34k), and social assistance (+22k), while mining, quarrying, and oil and gas extraction lost 8k jobs.
Despite this month’s increase being below forecasts, there are signs of labor market resilience across the jobs report, including continued wage pressure. Average hourly wages picked up notably, growing by 0.5% over the same period between December and January. Wages rose by 4.1% year-over-year.
The steady and resilient labor market report bolstered investors’ expectations that the Fed will hold steady in their March and May meetings. Currently, markets are assigning over a 90% probability of standing still in May.
Duration of Occupancies are Longest in SFRs
According to a recent analysis by Chandan Economics that explored which rental property types support the longest average length of tenancy, SFRs came out on top. Only about one-fifth (21.7%) of SFR households have lived in their current unit for less than a full year — nearly 10 percentage points lower than large multifamily properties at the other end of the spectrum.
A healthy majority of SFR households (67.3%) have at least made it to their third lease — the highest mark of any rental property type. Moreover, the share of households that have remained in place for over five years is a weighty 38.8%.
On a relative basis, an incoming SFR renter is roughly 40% more likely to turn into a five-plus-year tenant than an incoming large multifamily renter.
