In 2015, one consumer trend will simultaneously present the insurance industry with disturbing implications and enormous opportunity: the “sharing society.”

As younger generations in particular opt for sharing of all kinds—cars, homes, apartments, boats, even bathrooms—what’s the impact on the insurance market?

Alan Dobbins, vice president and senior research analyst with the research group at Conning, traces the trend to a decline in home ownership ever since the peak of the housing market in 2006. Even as the housing market continues to improve, “you don’t see any recovery in home ownership,” he says. “It’s still coming down with no signs of picking up. There’s something more going on than simply recession-affected incomes and employment.”

According to Dobbins, rentals began picking up steam after 2007. “After that, the market almost flips completely—before that you had almost no growth in rentals and pretty healthy, steady increases in owner-occupied housing units,” he says. Now, the picture has reversed. “There’s a whole segment of society that’s disenchanted with what’s implied in home ownership,” Dobbins says—which has translated into “a whole economy developing to serve this new thinking about the market. The less you own, the less you have an insurable interest in—and the less insurance you need to buy.”

In addition to setting the stage for potential personal lines growth stagnation, the “sharing society” leaves an abundance of coverage gaps in its wake. With the rise of the Airbnb concept, home and apartment sharing has become a popular route for young people. But “if a homeowners insurer has an insured renting out a room or house or apartment to somebody else, what do these travelers do in the house to create certain liabilities for the homeowner or possibly even the apartment building owner?” asks Jeff DeTurris, vice president of coverage products and operations at ISO.

On the personal auto side, car sharing has introduced situations in which a person “may rent their car to somebody else to actually drive,” DeTurris says. “That’s an exposure that’s certainly not contemplated in a personal auto policy.”

In fact, ISO developed an exclusion to address car sharing in response to requests from many insurers. Ride sharing through services like Uber and Lyft presents similar issues, DeTurris says: “It’s similar to a taxi service, and that’s something personal auto insurers haven’t traditionally been very comfortable with.”

For now, ISO has released a policyholder notice insurers can use “to alert insureds that if they’re taking part in ride-sharing activity, they should be careful—their personal auto policy may not address that and there may not be the coverage an insured is anticipating,” DeTurris explains.

But the trend shows no signs of slowing down. According to a new infographic from Erie Insurance, customers can get a rideshare ride in 42 out of 50 states, and one-fifth of respondents to a University of California, Berkeley survey would be willing to use real-time ridesharing at least occasionally.

And just because it’s an insurance problem now doesn’t mean it will remain one in the New Year. Dobbins cites farm-owners coverage as an example of a solution that offers personal lines coverage for a client’s farm and property but also covers business exposures. “You can conceivably think someone may develop some kind of integrated commercial/personal auto policy—Erie Insurance has already taken what appears to be the first steps in this direction,” he says.

“This is a growing market, and from a personal auto perspective, it’s a growing exposure,” DeTurris agrees. “We think insurers will soon have an appetite for some of that coverage.”

Jacquelyn Connelly is IA senior editor.