More people are renting!

WASHINGTON–More people are renting than at any other point in the past 50 years.

In 2016, 36.6% of household heads rented their home, close to the 1965 number of 37%, according to a new report by the Pew Research Center that is based on Census Bureau data.

Pew reported the total number of U.S. households grew by 7.6 million over the past decade, but the number of households headed by owners remained relatively flat, while households headed by renters grew by nearly 10% during the same time period.

Richard Fry, a senior researcher at Pew and one of the report's authors, cited rising home prices, lingering fears from the housing crash, and large amounts of student debt as some of the reasons why many Americans are renting rather than buying.

Perhaps not surprisingly, Millennials (those age 35 and younger) continue to be the most likely of all age groups to rent, Pew found. In 2016, 65% of households headed by young adults were renting, up eight percentage points from 2006.