This didn't sound right to me - according to the census bureau there are nearly twice as many owners as renters in America (1). So I'm not sure what discrepency you're pointing out there.
And anecdotally there was an explosion in demand last year while interest rates were crazy low and the rate of first time home purchasing was similarly crazy in my area. It was very easy for people to get the money to buy homes, but there was a shortage of housing stock.
(1) https://www.census.gov/housing/hvs/files/currenthvspress.pdf
