Five (or so) years ago, there were LOTS of first time buyers purchasing $150K new/newish townhomes in the City of Harrisonburg.  Many of these buyers were young professionals or newly married couples.  At the time, 100% mortgages were readily available, and sellers frequently paid closing costs, so a buyer could get into a house with just about no money at all.  Buying a house was the cool and hip thing to do, so young people were buying houses/townhouses let and right.

Fast forward to today, and we find that things are a bit different.  People who would have bought five years ago are now renting because they would now need at least 3.5% of the purchase price as a down payment, and may have to pay their own closing costs.  They also aren't buying because home values aren't increasing at a pace that would allow them to sell the house in the next few years without taking a loss.  Thus, lots of the buyers of yesteryear are now not buyers at all --- they are deciding to rent a townhouse instead.

But wait......so if there are lots of townhouse sellers, and fewer and fewer townhouse buyers, what is happening, or what will happen?  In large part, many of today's would-be sellers are turning into landlords.  After not being able to sell their townhouse that they bought five years ago, they decide to try to rent the property instead.

This entire shift in who is (not) buying and who is (not) selling will likely take several years to sort itself out.  One interest side effect is that there will be lots of 30-somethings who will unintentionally end up owning an investment property when they hadn't been aiming to do so.