Because they can ask those things more quickly and easily now. There's a bunch of jerks in California who are hellbent on connecting every DB in the world to every other DB that we can thank for this.
Absolutely. When my mother-in-law divorced and moved into a rented house, I was her guarantor.
I did have parents in 2003, but they lived 3000 miles away in a greek village where there was an ISDN line a 20 minute ride down the mountain, so not too practical. But this artcile is about 18-29 year olds moving in with their parents, not 50 year olds.
It applies in that age range as well.
A 29 year old moving in with their 64 year old parent(s) who are themselves poor and renting while on the edge of official retirement age, is going to find their parents probably rejected as guarantors.
(And difficult if you're self-employed with highly irregular income, I found.)
If using a guarantor, a guarantor has to pass similar checks.
Guarantor works a lot better for a young person starting out in a cheap-ass room in a shared place, whose parents expect this. For a flat and an older adult with retired parents on a low pension, or their own housing costs, not so much.
Good like finding a guarantor if your parents or friends:
- don't have enough spare income to cover your rent in addition to their own expenses
- don't pass the credit check themselves
- can't pass the proof-of-income check themselves
- don't have enough assets to use as security
- are not happy using their assets as security for you (e.g. their limited life savings or their one and only home)
Some people don't have parents, and these days, quite a lot of parents rent precariously too. They would be turned down as guarantors.
More parents renting is a factor which has changed in recent years.
I imagine most people don't have friends who would be willing to be long term rent guarantors, even if they could be.