One story of the housing markets since the pandemic has been unaffordable homes, between rising interest rates and dizzying selling prices, pushing more people into renting. But there's a flip side, according to a new CoreLogic study. Small investors and landlords found themselves unable to afford continuing a rental business, and so selling their properties and taking them off the rental market.

"Before 2017, when home prices were still recovering from the Great Recession, the number of properties entering the rental stock was more than the number of rental properties that exited," as CoreLogic explained. That makes sense because prices were low and there was money to be made from rents.

Then home price growth stabilized and, next, shot up by double digits by 2021. The number of properties being sold and exiting the rental market was 50% lower than those entering it.