"The recession has been an important part of Rent the Runway's popularity," said Abrams, who has rented about 15 dresses and is now a customer communications associate for the company. "For people my age, the new thing is renting versus buying. It is a great way to save money."
Furniture companies are also getting in on the act. Chantilly, Virginia-based CORT, the world's largest provider of rental furniture, boosted its efforts in 2009 to reach college students and younger customers.
Student Furniture
Koepsell, the senior vice president, said the company was "foolish" not to aim for the market earlier. Last year, CORT provided furniture to about 15,000 students and predicts that number will grow to 25,000 this year.
Among CORT's customers is Michael Ferraiolo, a 20-year-old senior at Virginia Tech, who pays $198 monthly for everything from beds to a coffee table to furnish the rented townhouse he shares with two roommates in Blacksburg, Virginia.
"With the job market such an uncertainty, none of us know where they are going to end up," Ferraiolo said. "Now, more than ever, you see people moving around in different job markets all throughout their career. We just don't know what to expect."
Shifting attitudes about larger purchases aren't the only reason preventing young consumers from buying. Stricter lending practices and higher requirements for down payments on houses and cars are crowding out buyers, Blanchflower, the Dartmouth economist, said.
Build Wealth
For those who choose to rent not buy, there's a price to pay, said Lubell of the Center for Housing Policy. By foregoing purchases of assets like homes, young people are giving up on a chance to build wealth, he said.
"What you are seeing is a delay in all the kinds of decisions that require a long-term financially stable future," Lubell said. "That's home purchases, that's marriage and that's having kids."
Anselmo, the health consultant who rents an apartment in Austin, Texas, says he understands such arguments. Even so, he can't bring himself to buy a house.
"The logical person in me gets pissed off when I write a check every month and it just goes down the drain," he said. "But we are very hesitant."