VIENNA, Va. — On a recent sunny afternoon, a half-dozen grinding and spinning cement trucks helped lay the foundation for what many real estate developers see as the most promising housing opportunity in postrecession America: apartment living.

Here in suburban Vienna, about 16 miles west of downtown Washington, Joshua Solomon’s DSF Group is remaking a congested but nondescript intersection into a haven for young adults of the millennial generation. Like many other developers who survived the housing bust, he now expects a coming wave of renters who intend to stay that way for a while to help lead the industry to a brighter future.

“That generation of folks has seen people really get hurt by homeownership,” said Mr. Solomon, president of the company, which is based in Waltham, Mass. “The petal has really fallen off the rose as it pertains to homeownership. People don’t want to be tied down to a mortgage they can’t get out of quickly.”

That is true of Cabell Dickinson, 30, who had rented an apartment in Arlington, Va., for eight years when she and her boyfriend decided in May to get more serious about their relationship. Instead of marrying and buying a home, however, they followed friends to Mr. Solomon’s complex, known as Halstead Square, moving into a $2,000-a-month apartment.