Rentals Balloon in 500 Cities Amid Housing Bust

Dreaming about buying a home with a white picket fence? You might have to settle for renting one instead. More than 500 medium and large cities around the country have seen an increase in the number of homes that are rented rather than owned, USA Today reported Tuesday.

Nearly 4 million homes have been lost to foreclosures in the past five years, which means that increasing numbers of formerly owner-occupied homes are now tenant-occupied, the newspaper reported, citing Census data.

The trend is likely to last for quite some time, and it will have long-term effects on neighborhoods, experts say.

Around the nation, 34.9 percent of occupied homes were rented in 2012, up from 33.8 percent in 2000, USA Today said. Florida, California, and Arizona saw the largest rise in tenant-occupied housing.