Landlord Statistics [2024]: Population, Income & Demographics

Last Updated: April 18, 2022

Highlights. Residential landlord statistics indicate that, though private individuals own 71.6% of rental properties, landlords only collect an estimated 6.8% of residential rental market revenue.

45.0% of residential rental units (and 18.8% of residential rental properties) are under corporate ownership.
Among rental properties with individual landlords, 79.8% are owner-managed.
Among landlords who report holding back part or all of a tenant’s security deposit, 24.8% of landlords admit to doing so unfairly.
Landlords increased the average rental asking price 8.4% from 2021 to 2022.
Taxpaying individual property owners claimed rental properties generated an average $45,777 in gross income in 2019.

Pie Chart: Landlords' Time Spent Managing Rental Properties, Monthly Hours, Owner-Managed Properties Only; 47.12% spend 4 hours or less, 20.41% spend 5 to 9 hours, 16.58% spend 10 to 19 hours, 7.92% spend 20 to 39 hours, 3.74% spend 40 to 79 hours, 1.69% spend 80 to 119 hours,1.02% spend 120 to 159 hours, and 1.53% spend 160 hours or more'

A landlord is not the same as a property manager. See our report on the Property Management Industry.

Property Ownership by Landlord Category
Property Owner	Number of Properties	% of Residential Properties
Individual	14,282,000	71.6%
LLP, LP, or LLC	3,238,000	16.2%
Trustee	718,000	3.6%
Real Estate Corporation or REIT	427,000	2.1%
Nonprofit Organization	155,000	0.8%
Housing Cooperative or Tenant in Common	105,000	0.5%
General Partnership	78,000	0.4%
Other	262,000	1.3%
Unreported	690,000	3.5%
Total Residential Rental Properties	19,955,000	100%

Independent Landlord Statistics

Individual owners or landlords are most likely to own single-family homes and small buildings with fewer than 10 units.

Individual landlords own 41.2% of all rental units.
Landlords own 74.6% of 2- to 4-unit rentals.
99.0% of landlords own 1- to 4-unit properties.
The average landlord rents to 2.5 households or 5.9 individuals.
12.4% of individually-owned rental properties have belonged to the same landlord for 30 years or more.
Landlords remodel or rehabilitate 17.6% of their rental properties.
Each year, landlords remodel or rehabilitate an average 1.2% of rental properties.

Landlord Business Statistics

A landlord is a small business owner with expenses and risks business. Roughly half of landlords pay $2,500 or more per unit in annual operating expenses, for example.

35.8% of rental businesses fail in the first five (5) years.
36.1% of landlords report holding back part or all of a tenant’s security deposit.
24.8% of landlords admitted they unfairly held back part or all of a tenant’s security deposit.
21.9% of landlords are reportedly unaware of the federal government’s Emergency Rental Assistance program.
59.3% of landlords who have applied to the program have received funds.
Most landlords (approximately 69%) lease properties valued at less than $200,000.
11.6% of properties owned by landlords are valued at $60,000 to $79,000.
Landlords are 3.32 times more likely than corporations to own single-unit rental properties.

Landlord Income & Expense Statistics

According to the Pew Research Center, nearly half of individual landlords reported net losses on their properties; losses to vacancy are more than three (3) times higher than losses to collections and concessions combined.

25.4% of individually-owned properties gross $25,000 or more in annual rent; 1.5% gross $50,000 or more per year.
The average landlord makes $69,085 in annual income as of August 24, 2022.
Federal data indicates the average landlord income may be as much as 2.3% higher than the average household income.
16.8 million taxpayers claim rental property income (this includes income from estates, real estate trusts, etc.).
The number of taxpayers claiming income from rental property has increased at an average annual rate of 7.3% since 2006.
Reporting taxpayers claimed an average $45,777 gross income from rental properties alone in 2019.
Tenant turnover costs landlords an estimated $1,995 per month, per unit.
53% of landlords said they experienced less than 10% tenant turnover in a 12-month period.
Landlords pay for 89% of apartment repairs.

National Map: Landlords' Median Asking Rent by Census Region, 2021, Northeast $1,530, South $1,064, Midwest $905, and West $1,682'

Landlord Property Management Statistics

Most landlords also perform property management duties, such as collecting rent. Almost 8-in-10 landlord-owned properties are managed by the property owner.

Landlords perform day-to-day management for 79.8% of individually-owned rental properties.
An estimated 0.2% of landlords manage their properties full-time (160 hours per month).
An estimated 76% of landlords spend less than 40 hours per month managing their properties.
An estimated 42% of landlords spend less than four (4) hours per month managing their properties.
843 of landlords of 2- to 4-unit properties (0.005% of all landlords) report that they live in the same building or on the same property as the unit(s) they rent.

Weekly Hours% of Properties with Landlords% of All Rental Properties

Property Owner-Manager’s Average Weekly Working Hours
1 hour or less	47.1%	34.6%
1:15 to 2:15	20.4%	15.0%
2:30 to 4:45	16.6%	12.2%
5 hours to 9:45	7.9%	5.8%
10 hours to 19:45	3.7%	2.7%
20 hours to 29:45	1.7%	1.2%
30 hours to 39:45	1.0%	0.7%
40 hours or more	1.5%	1.1%

Landlord & Tenant Statistics

For some landlords, particularly those who are also property managers, tenants are as much of a concern as their real estate investment.

7.7% of individually-owned properties are open to tenants Section 8 vouchers.
40.6% of landlords report having had a tenant who suddenly stopped paying rent.
Enforcing an eviction costs landlords an average of $3,500 per eviction.
44.7% of landlords have evicted a tenant.
Landlords are likely to evict 1,015,973 or 1.7% of renting households in the next two (2) months.
23% of landlords surveyed in 2021 considered evicting a renter within the next 30 days.
56.7% of landlords report they would evict a renter after one-to-two months of missed rent.
44.7% of landlords have evicted a tenant.
61.5% of landlords say they trust their tenants to maintain their property.

Landlords’ Top Concerns About Tenants
Reporting Landlords	Concern
84%	Payment Problems	Renters may have difficulty paying rent
56%	Prior Eviction History	May indicate previous issues as a tenant
45%	Prior Criminal History	May indicate a pattern of risky behavior that could impact property and/or other tenants
34%	Fraudulent Information on Application	If purposeful, may indicate a willingness to lie and commit fraud elsewhere (e.g. renter’s insurance claims)
32%	High Maintenance	High maintenance tenants can monopolize managers’ time and cost more in frequent repairs or replacements
11%	Moves Frequently	May indicate past difficulty with landlords or neighbors (though there are many other reasons why a person moves often)

Landlord Tenant Screening Statistics

Most landlords screen potential tenants by checking public records and credit reports. Overall, landlords are generally more concerned with a tenants’ credit history.

37.6% of landlords say they always perform a criminal background check.
34.2% of landlords say they check potential tenants’ criminal backgrounds sometimes or often.
27.1% of landlords say they typically don’t do criminal background checks.
38.7% of landlords say they always check a potential renter’s credit.
44.8% of landlords say they check potential tenants’ credit histories sometimes or often.
17.6% of landlords said they don’t typically conduct credit checks.

Landlord & Rent Collection Statistics

Renters’ finances can directly impact a landlord’s income. Recent statistics indicate that landlords may have a more difficult time collecting rent than in previous years.

37% of landlords claimed they collected less than 90% of their total due rent value in 2020 (a 236.4% increase from 2019).
9% of landlords collected less than half of their total due rent value in 2020, a 200% increase from 2019.
8,351,764 or 5.8% of reporting households were behind on rent payments in the first week of March 2022.
In March 2021, 4.1% of renters hadn’t paid that month’s rent by the end of the month.
In April 2020, 5.4% of renters hadn’t paid by the end of the month, a 92.9% increase in delinquency from the previous month.
Also in April 2020, more than twice as many renters hadn’t paid their rent by the end of the month compared to April 2019.
December 2021 saw the largest rate of delinquency (8.0%) in at least the last 36 months.
Rent delinquency in December 2021* was 6.2% higher than rent delinquency is April 2019.

*This is the last entry recorded in the National Multifamily Housing Council’s Rent Payment Tracker. In a statement that appears to contradict published data, the NMHC claims “[t]he consistency of the data month to month demonstrated that the multifamily industry was stable, eliminating the need for continued monitoring.”

MonthHouseholds with Unpaid Rent by End of MonthYoY Difference

Late Rent Payments in 2021
January	6.8%	+2.79%
February	6.5%	+1.71%
March	4.1%	+1.36%
April	5.0%	+0.42%
May	5.4%	+0.53%
June	4.4%	-0.31%
July	5.1%	+0.84%
August	6.3%	+0.85%
September	7.1%	+1.83%
October	7.0%	+1.94%
November	6.9%	+0.54%
December	8.0%	+1.96%

Landlord Industry & Market Statistics

Apartment values have increased sharply in the last two years. Statistics indicate that COVID-19 may have impacted the residential rental market, including residents’ ability to pay rent, beyond the lockdown period.

The domestic residential rental industry was valued at $5.232 trillion in 2020.
Individual landlords collected a total of $353.7 billion in rent money in 2018.
From 2020 to 2021, the per-square-foot value of the average apartment increased 14.2%.
From 2008 to 2021, apartment values increased at an average annual rate of 10.2%.

Commercial Landlord Statistics

Nearly one-third of all farmland in the Lower 48 is rented out by landlords that do not operate farms (called “nonoperating” landlords).

Landlords own 75.8% of residential properties with commercial use.
Landlords own 14.1% of units with commercial use.
39% of farmland in the 48 contiguous United States is rented.
80% of that farmland is owned by nonoperating landlords who do not operate farms.
In 2017, farms owned by nonoperator landlords were a $9.8 billion market.
Also in 2017, farm tenant-occupied housing owned by farm operator landlords grossed $100 million.

Landlord Statistics