The Financial Knowledge Gap That Keeps Renters Renting

Written by:

Heather Hook

Date:

18 Jun 2026

KeyCrew Studio

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There are roughly 100 million renters in the United States. One third of the country. And for most of them, the financial knowledge that would help them get out of renting and into ownership, how to get out of debt, how to build a credit score, how to save a down payment, was never taught to them. Not in school. Not by their parents. Not by their landlord.

Steven Libman, founder of Investing With Purpose™, thinks that is both a societal failure and an opportunity. Through 15 years of operating multifamily real estate, Libman has built a faith-driven community investment model in which financial literacy is one of the central pillars of how residents inside his properties are served. That model is now being advanced through Investing With Purpose, with a live example currently operating at a property owned by Integrity Holdings Group (IHG), a firm Libman co-founded that operates with a closely aligned mission.

The wealth gap the model is designed to address is stark. The average homeowner in the United States has a net worth of over $350,000. The average renter has a net worth of around $10,500. That is not primarily a gap of income. It is a gap of knowledge, access, and compounding decisions made without the right information.

The Knowledge Gap Nobody Filled

Libman is direct about how the financial world has failed ordinary people. People have been told, implicitly or explicitly, that managing money is too complex for the average person. They hand capital to advisors who chase returns. They pay CPAs who file returns but never proactively identify ways to reduce what is owed. They rent because homeownership feels distant and nobody has ever shown them the steps between here and there.

“We have done a really good job of reconciling our giving and our philanthropy to our core values,” he says. “But when it comes to our investments, we outsource our conscience and our thinking to someone else.”

The same dynamic plays out in housing. Renters who might, with education and a structured plan, become homeowners within two or three years instead remain tenants for decades – not because ownership is impossible, but because nobody ever sat down with them and explained the mechanics. What does getting out of debt actually look like? What credit score do you need? What does a down payment require, and how long does it realistically take to save one?

These are not complicated questions. They just go unanswered.

What Financial Peace University Looks Like Inside an Apartment Complex

A current example of the model in action is a 418-unit property in Lubbock, Texas, owned and operated by IHG. The property runs a financial literacy program in partnership with Dave Ramsey’s Financial Peace University, delivered by on-site ministry coordinators already embedded in the community. The program is free for residents and covers debt reduction, credit building, and savings strategies, the foundational mechanics of financial health that most people in multifamily housing have never had access to in a structured way.

This is the same Asset Ministry Program framework that Investing With Purpose advances across its own portfolio, placing the Lubbock initiative in direct alignment with the mission Libman is building at scale through his new firm.

What makes the Lubbock program particularly notable is what comes next. The 418-unit community is made up of individually deeded duplexes. Residents who complete the program and hit qualifying milestones have a pathway to purchase their own unit, moving from tenant to homeowner, and in some cases to landlord, within a realistic timeframe backed by partnerships with local credit unions and banks.

“Maybe the single mom who thought she would be renting forever is, two years later, a landlord,” says Libman. “That changes the trajectory for her and her kids.”

Community Is Not a Soft Metric

It would be easy to read this as philanthropy dressed up as business. It is not. The retention data from properties running this model is unambiguous. Residents who have six or seven friends in the same complex are roughly 45 to 50 percent less likely to leave. Lease attrition at properties running structured community engagement programs drops by 40 to 50 percent. Lower turnover means lower costs, more stable income, and better performing assets.

The financial literacy program is not a cost center. It is an investment in the stability of the community, which is an investment in the stability of the asset. The two are not in conflict. They are the same thing viewed from different angles.

Investing With Purpose is also developing summer tutoring and kids’ programming at several portfolio properties, targeting the documented learning gap that affects children in multifamily housing during school breaks compared to their peers in single-family homes. The goal is the same across every initiative: meet a real need inside the community, build genuine connection, and create an environment where people want to stay.

What This Looks Like at Scale

The Lubbock program is relatively new. Full outcomes are still being tracked. But the framework is replicable, and Libman is applying it across a growing portfolio through Investing With Purpose.

The broader question it raises is one the real estate industry has largely avoided: what responsibility does an operator have to the people living inside its assets? For most operators, the answer stops at maintenance, safety, and lease compliance. For a faith-driven operator, Libman argues, that answer is insufficient.

“Where people live affects almost everything their life touches,” he says. “The communities they are building, the people they are with, if we can impact somebody’s life inside a community, and then you see the butterfly effect of that, it is immeasurable.”

More information on the Asset Ministry Program and the firm’s broader community investment model is available at investingwithpurpose.org/impact.

About Investing With Purpose: Investing With Purpose is a faith-driven multifamily real estate firm based in Bluffton, SC. The firm invests in multifamily assets nationally, combining institutional-quality investment management with an intentional values framework that prioritizes community, transparency, and purpose alongside financial performance. Learn more at investingwithpurpose.org.

Disclaimer: This article is based on information provided by the expert source cited above. It is intended for general informational purposes only and does not constitute legal, financial, or real estate advice. Readers should conduct their own research and consult qualified professionals before making any real estate or financial decisions.

Disclosure: Individuals or companies mentioned may have a commercial relationship with KeyCrew.