To Rent Or Not To Rent

With the economy the way it is, more Americans are downsizing, all of which point in a single direction: rents are on the rise.

Today the number of homeownership has plummeted to fewer than 67 percent, that's roughly 3 million households that are now tenant-occupied!

In the first quarter of 2011, rental vacancy rates had dropped to 6.2 percent, according to Reis. That, of course, means that rents are on the rise. The nationwide average rental amount rose from $967 in early 2010 to $991 in 2011?

The bottom line is, it is going to get very expensive to rent in the next few years, which hopefully will fuel demand for homeownership and swing the pendulum back the other way, fingers crossed.