If I had the money, I would be buying rentals - affordable for me but also affordable for renter. Around here, a 3 br apartment in a nice area is going to be within a hundred or two of $1000, depending on amenities. I think if you can buy houses that are competitive to a nice apartment, renters with kids would prefer a house. ,
Several years ago I ran across an older guy who owned a couple houses in the neighborhood as rentals which he said were his retirement income. I would guess he has been doing this for at least twenty plus years. His tenants usually only stay a couple years sometimes they have kids other times he has rented to groups of singles. In any event last I knew he was getting around $14-1600 for a three bedroom on 1/8 acre lot and I suspect that is without utilities (I know one place is propane the other may be oil). These properties would probably currently be valued in the 190-230k range but had an initial purchase cost between 20-60k (25+ years ago). They have had normal maintenance, maybe a furnace or roof, that type stuff but certainly no fancy designer kitchens or spa tub stuff.
I had a rental close to ten years with the same tenant. Before I sold the house I made the tenant a good offer to purchase it. They didn't want the maintenance or ownership hassle. It was a four bedroom in fine shape with a landscaped acre lot and went for around 130K around 2000. My accountant was marvelous at taking care of the financial end as I had made improvements, taken depreciation, and bought the house as part of my divorce settlement (which obviously changed the cost basis). There are a lot of things to consider in the rental / ownership business which I suspect a lot of people may be unaware. I finally got sick of having the headache of maintaining two places, one of which was a forty five minute drive away.
You can only defer income for so long on rental property if I remember correctly. Perhaps someone more familiar can speak to that aspect. I do know that I rented the property at about break even and was able to make profit on the increase in value over time after all tax considerations. I have never really done an analysis to see if I could have beaten the rate of return in the market. Even the best tenants can get to be a drag after a while and never, ever, ever rent to friends or relatives. It is a sure fire recipe for problems.