With the Valley's homeownership rate down more than 8 percent since 2005, one Phoenix-based home builder has created a solution for millennials and baby boomers who don't want to be tied down by mortgages.

NexMetro Communities offers single-story, detached rental homes with backyards in its Avilla Homes neighborhoods. The homes and landscape are maintained by the property management company, which takes a lot of responsibility off residents’ shoulders, Executive Vice President Josh Hartmann said.

Avilla Homes recently opened its Goodyear neighborhood, Avilla Palm Valley, in September.

Renters can choose from one-, two- or three-bedroom floorplans ranging in monthly rental rates from $985 for a one-bedroom home up to $1,600 for a three-bedroom property.

The homes are available in 12- or 24-month leases and offer higher-end amenities like granite counter tops, stainless steel appliances, 10-foot ceilings, open floor plans and gated entrance to the community.

Homes range from 650 square feet to 1200 square feet and are about the size of apartments, Hartmann said. NexMetro has Avila developments in Goodyear and Chandler, with four more locations planned in Chandler, Gilbert and Queen Creek.

“We call ourselves suburban infill,” Hartmann said, noting that NexMetro competes for residents with both apartments and home builders, and bases a lot of their appeal on the fact that Avilla Homes offers the same amenities of a house but without a mortgage.

“No one is doing single-story, detached apartment homes like we do,” Hartmann said.

What began in 2012 as a short-term fix to the short-term problem of people losing their homes because of the recession has now grown into 1,500 homes completed or under construction and eight more communities on the way in metro Phoenix and Dallas suburbs, Hartmann said.

Dallas was chosen as the first market outside Phoenix because the city and its suburbs fared better through the recession. Dallas demographics also mach up with NexMetro's target residents, Hartmann said.

NexMetro initially expected to see a majority of residents who had lost homes in the recession and no longer had the credit to own a home, Hartmann said. They were surprised to find very few credit-impaired residents choosing to live in Avilla Homes neighborhoods, and a large population of both millennials and baby boomers who were attracted to the idea of living in newer housing with more flexibility and less responsibility.