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This anecdote isn't intended as commentary on what you wrote, but I feel like sharing.
My area is full of big homes occupied by single retirees and tiny apartments occupied by families. Somehow, whether due to regulation or tax nonsense or what have you, there doesn't seem to be a way of fixing this. Maybe when the boomers really start to die en masse it'll work out.
Actually something I've seen a few times is married boomers who are still 'together' but each live in their own full sized homes near each other as they simply find that more pleasant. Blew my mind the first time but it keeps coming up.
You see this all the time in California. I know a boomer or two who has empty houses that he doesn't even rent out because he doesn't want to bother.
The tax situation for real estate in California is an incredibly sweet deal. Your tax basis is the valuation at purchase time with a yearly increase not to exceed inflation or 2%. Boomers are paying pennies in property tax on all their properties while people who buy a house now can pay ten thousand a year for an ""starter"" house. Another transfer from the productive to the retired.
Pretty much everyone I know personally who has rented out in the past would never rent out again. They'd much rather pay taxes on an empty house than deal with the potential for another tenant from Hell, and they've all dealt with at least one. And these were not people renting out cheap shacks, either.
That's the problem: you get terrible landlords, and you also get terrible tenants. There are people who will take total advantage of being a tenant and just wreck the place and laugh in your face about any consequences. I don't blame people who have a house that they're renting out for spare income but are not 'professional' landlords for deciding the game is not worth the candle, and it's better to just sell the property (or keep it as inheritance for your kids).
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