Is Flexible Renting in Your Future?

Author and urban-studies theorist Richard Florida has some "tough love" advice for Americans. First, we need to lose our obsession with real estate.

In his web-based video produced for The Atlantic titled "The Burden of Homeownership" he says that we need a "more flexible rental system." And when he means "more flexible," he means completely reimagined.

What might this pro-renter future look like?

Florida suggests that landlords and management companies should encourage easier movement intra-city and across the country. This way, if you're renting in one apartment on one side of town but get a job on the other, you could move without penalty to another unit closer to work, so long as the new place was owned by the same landlord or management company.

Here's how it might function and why home ownership isn't as likely to create wealth in the future as it has in the past...