Renting in America used to be the norm — and a family didn’t have to spend very much to put a roof over their heads.

But you might not remember those days, because it was before World War II.

Now the country may be headed back to a time when more people rent rather than own, according to recent trends analyzed by the digital platform Apartment List.

A new study by the real estate rental website found that it’s gotten much tougher for the new generation of renters, who spend a higher percentage of their incomes on housing while watching rental prices rocket past salary gains. But with soaring housing prices, the rental population has inched up after years of growing rates of home ownership.

“You’re seeing rents increase very steadily, and not wages,” said Chris Salviati, housing economist with Apartment List and author of the study.

As late as the 1940s, more households rented — about 56 percent — than owned homes, according to the study. Today, about 37 percent of the country rents.

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“The home ownership rate is focused on a lot in the last 50 years,” said Salviati. “If you go back another 50 years, it was a renter society.”

The percentage of income spent on rent has increased steadily through the generations. In the 1960s, a typical family would spend 15 percent of their income on rent. Today, a renter will pay about 25 percent of his or her paycheck for housing.

The growing burden has been caused by stagnant wages and a shortage of affordable housing.

Apartment List analyzed renter statistics since the 1930s in the United States. During the Depression, about 53 percent of households were on leases, paying a median monthly rent of $383 in today’s dollars. The average monthly rent for a four or five-room apartment in the U.S. today is $851.

Reasons for the growing population of renters in the Bay Area market include price and cautious buyers. Many cannot afford to buy a home, despite high tech salaries. In the aftermath of the housing bust last decade, many prospective homeowners are more cautious, Salviati said. “People are re-thinking exactly how smart it is to own a home,” he said.

Jeffrey Buchanan, director of public policy at Working Partnerships USA in San Jose, said the dire housing shortage in the Bay Area has forced many renters into taking second and third jobs.

In San Jose, for example, a family needs to earn $113,000 just to afford the average two- bedroom apartment, according to an analysis by the non-profit.

An influx of new rental units in two large projects associated with Google, North Bayshore in Mountain View and the proposed commercial and residential redevelopment near Diridon Station in San Jose, could mean more housing but also less home ownership, he said.

“We could, in the near future, see San Jose and Santa Cara County become majority renters,” Buchanan said. The decline in home ownership also correlates with a family’s net worth, he said, since a home is typically a family’s largest investment.

Rick Smith, a real estate agent and president of the Santa Clara County Association of Realtors, has managed property in the Bay Area for more than three decades.

Technology has changed the basics of paying, background checks and listing properties. Over time, Smith has seen his renters come with higher incomes and credit scores. Some professionals still choose to rent, save money and wait for better opportunities to buy in the market, he said.

The make-up of households has changed, too, Smith said. More renters have two and three generations of families in a home. It’s also become more common for un-related families to share homes just to afford the monthly payments.

“That’s primarily driven by the cost of rents,” Smith said, “That’s no secret to anyone.”