More Metro Detroit sellers becoming landlords

Between the lines: As buyers gain leverage and homes take longer to sell, a growing share of homeowners are renting their properties instead.

Zoom in: In Metro Detroit, 2.3% of rental listings on its platform in October were previously for sale.

Zoom out: Texas and Florida had seven of the 10 metros with the highest shares of accidental landlords, while Denver led at 4.9%.

• Shares were lowest in the Northeast and Midwest markets, including Boston (0.6%), New York (0.7%) and Chicago (1.3%).

State of play: Accidental landlords are most common in softer markets, Zillow found.

• They also add homes to the rental pool, which can ease rent prices. Single-family rents rose 2.6% in February from a year earlier, the slowest annual growth in Zillow data going back to 2015.

What they're saying: "I kind of wish that I'd sold and moved on," said a Maryland condo owner, who told the Wall Street Journal he'd relocated for work and was reluctant to sell at a loss.