The home is the biggest component of many consumers personal wealth. So if you want to give folks cold sweats and recurring nightmares, tell them they have to sell in this abysmal market. Life sometimes intervenes new job, new baby forcing homeowners to relocate. But here s a thought for reluctant sellers: Don t sell, rent.

That s advice a lot of homeowners are now hearing, and for good reason. An overlooked symptom of the housing malaise is that average rental prices are at an all-time high, according to a recent study by the Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies. In part, that s because families forced out of their homes need someplace to live the number of renter households jumped by more than 1 million last year, four times the growth rate during the boom years 2003 to 2006. The result is that it s currently 10 to 15 percent cheaper to own a home than to rent in most parts of the country, concludes a separate study by Columbia University professor Chris Mayer.

Those numbers don t work in all cities New York and Miami, to name a couple and being a landlord has its costs. But savvy homeowners should do the math to see if they can turn a profit on their home while they wait to sell it. Faris Naman, An electrical contractor in Sylmar, Calif., is shopping for a new home, but if buyers are scarce for his current home, he figures he can rent it out for close to the amount of its $2,400 monthly mortgage payment. Even if he comes up a few dollars short, he expects to make up that minor deficit and then some when he sells later, in a rising market.

For those staying put, a few kinds of renovations could pay now and later. Remodeling spending is expected to fall 9 percent this year, says the Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies. But so-called green projects should be up slightly over the same period. Austin, Texas, builder Clark Wilson recommends retrofitting homes with what he calls the big three of energy efficiency: spray-foam insulation, a tankless water heater and an upgraded climate-control system. In Austin, Wilson says, these upgrades run about $23,000 for a 3,000-square-foot home and result in savings of up to $250 a month in energy costs, meaning they pay for themselves in less than eight years. And homeowners able to snare a home-improvement loan admittedly, no sure thing in this climate can conceivably turn a profit right away; the monthly energy savings will likely surpass the roughly $200 monthly payments on a 15-year loan. And it s a good bet that a big portion of the initial outlay will be recouped when the home is sold. According to a recent American Institute of Architects survey, 90 percent of homebuyers are willing to pay at least $5,000 extra for an energy-efficient home.