Stat of The Day: Negative Equity and Lots of New Rentals

From a new report (PDF) by the Center for Economic and Policy Research and the National Low Income Housing Coalition:

According to the most recent Census numbers, in the past year, the number of renter households in the United States increased by nearly 1 million. By contrast, the number of homeowner households increased by just 139,000. The ability for metropolitan area housing markets to accommodate this shift to rental will vary considerably.

The report also predicts negative equity for New York City area homeowners in the coming years. That means homes would re-sell for less than what sellers paid for them. From a summary of the report:

... [B]y the year 2012, homeowners in New York will have $106,000 of negative equity and in Los Angeles, the shortfall would be $228,000.