Renters’ rise extends beyond U.S. cities to suburbs, study says

NEW YORK — In the American imagination, suburbs are places to buy a house and put down roots.

Experts attribute the renter surge partly to the foreclosures, financial struggles, stagnant incomes and tighter credit that followed the mortgage meltdown.

Researchers also note the wave of young adults — often renters — in the large, so-called Millennial generation, though a Harvard study in December noted a majority of U.S. renters now are 40 and older.

Nationwide, 37 percent of all households now rent, the highest level since the mid-1960s, Harvard University’s Joint Center for Housing Studies noted in December.

Typical tenants could afford fewer than half the rental homes available in metro areas nationwide in 2014, under officials’ traditional definition of affordability: spending under 30 percent of income on rent and utilities.