Forget Owning, It's a Renter's Market

NYC apartment buildings.

The American Dream of owning a single family home is looking more and more like a landlord's game — and the rest of us are just renters.

Homeownership is lower than it's been in over 20 years, and the stock of apartments and houses for rent is getting competitive as the share of households renting is at a 20-year high. In New York City, only 3.45 percent of rental properties are up for grabs. With so many people looking to rent so few apartments, that's helping to drive up rents.

But even so, home sales are rising to nearly six year highs, who's buying? Sure, there's been an increase in first-time buyers, but increasingly, Wall Street private equity firms are buying up properties and turning them into rentals. 

Money Talking host Charlie Herman asks Rana Foroohar of Time and Heidi Moore of Mashable what a renter dominated market means for the country.