Built-to-rent homes surge in San Antonio and Texas

The brutal housing market is driving more and more Americans to opt out of buying.

• That's particularly acute in San Antonio and across Texas, where more built-to-rent homes are popping up.

Driving the news: About 856 built-to-rent homes are planned or are under construction for every million Texans, per the National Rental Home Council.

• Nationwide, the average is 345 per million Americans.

Why it matters: Built-to-rent housing offers a new, single-family home, often with property management perks, and without the need for a down payment or long-term commitment, Axios' Felix Salmon reports.

What's happening: These houses are in growing demand among would-be buyers who can't afford — or find — a single-family home, and those opting not to buy for lifestyle reasons, Doug Ressler of real estate research firm Yardi Matrix tells Axios.

The big picture: Texas is a leading state for built-to-rent homes, per RentCafe.

Zoom in: San Antonio ranks eighth among the top metros for built-to-rent homes in the last five years, per RentCafe, with 1,001 new single-family rentals in that time period.

Plus, there are more on the way, with 969 single-family rental homes under construction in San Antonio.

Of note: Another recent report from San Antonio-based developer Embrey suggests the built-to-rent surge is even higher in the Alamo City, with more than 3,100 such homes at the end of last year — up from just 973 in 2018.

• The Far West Side, the Northwest Side and the Interstate 35 corridor are primarily seeing the built-to-rent boom.

The bottom line: Building more single-family rentals isn't going to solve the housing crisis, but it could ease the supply crunch.