During the longest stretch of time that I rented a house, I was one of between four and two young men, most of us broke. The owners of the house were a married

During the longest stretch of time that I rented a house, I was one of between four and two young men, most of us broke. The owners of the house were a married couple who lived about a mile away. Were the state to have expropriated them, we could not have paid anything like fair compensation. I don't say that we represented the most common case, but I do think that such rentals reduce friction in the housing market. Towns with decent economies will have such transients who need a roof but aren't ready to commit to staying.