Landlord Statistics [2024 ]: Population, Income & Demographics

Last Updated: September 25, 2024

Highlights. Private individuals or “landlords” own 68.7% of U.S. residential rental properties.

U.S. landlords will collect $428 billion total rent in 2024.
9.72 million tax-paying Americans own rental property in 2024.
Landlords own 18.2 million rental units, equivalent to 1.89 units apiece.
88.5% of landlord-owned properties are single-family units.
Among rental properties with individual landlords, 80.0% are owner-managed; 16.9% have a hired property manager or management company.

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

Residential Rental Property Ownership
Property Owner	Number of Properties	Annual Properties Added^*
Individual	13,284,000	-595,000
LLP, LP, or LLC	3,139,000	43,000
Estate trustee	482,000	-50,000
Tenant in Common	416,000	41,000
Nonprofit Organization	369,000	28,000
Other	273,000	5,000
General Partnership	182,000	-9,000
Real Estate Corporation	116,000	6,000
Real Estate Investment Trust	106,000	-5,000
Housing Cooperative or Tenant in Common	8,000	<500
Unreported ownership	966,000	139,000

^*Average year-to-year difference between 2015 and 2021.

Independent Landlord Statistics

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

Americans claim income from rental property in 5.99% of tax returns.
Landlords represent 3.73% of the U.S. population over 18 years old and 2.92% of the total U.S. population.
In 2021, there were 9.635 million American landlords.
Projections indicate that, between 2021 and 2024, a net 82,367 more Americans became landlords.
Landlords owned 13.284 million rental properties in 2021.
98.2% of landlord-owned properties are 1-4 units.
Landlords own 70.6% of all 2- to 4-unit rentals.
Private individuals owned 71.6% of rental properties in 2018; 99.0% of landlord-owned properties had 1-4 units.
The average U.S. landlord owned 1.72 properties in 2018.

Pie chart: Residential Rental Property Ownership including Individual (68.7%), Business (16.8%), Trust, Co-op, or Other Partnership (6.2%), Nonprofit (1.9%), Other (1.4%), and Unreported (5.0%) according to the U.S. Census Bureau

Landlord Business Statistics

Some independent landlords form small businesses or sole proprietorships, especially if they own multiple units and hire help.

Landlords hire paid employees for 16.9% of individually-owned properties;
13.5% of landlord-properties have unpaid employees.
54% of surveyed rental properties have belonged to the same landlord for over a decade.
1.07% of landlord-owned rental properties haven’t changed owners in over 50 years.
45.8% of real estate and rental businesses fail in the first five (5) years.
97.6% of landlord-owned properties consist of a single building; 2.00% of landlord properties include 2-3 buildings.
Landlords have an average of 1.37 units per property.
The average landlord owns 1.38 properties.

Pie chart: Residential Rental Unit Ownership including Individual (23.5%), Business (27.7%), Trust, Co-op, or Other Partnership (40.1%), Nonprofit (1.7%), Other (1.2%), and Unreported (5.8%) according to the U.S. Census Bureau

Landlord Income & Expense Statistics

In one year, 64.7% of landlord-owned properties have operating expenses of $2,500 or more per unit.

In 2024, the average landlord claims a $16,166 income from leased property.
After expenses, the average landlord makes a gross profit of $8,552.
Landlords reserve 36% of rents collected as income.
While the average landlord collected $40,226 in rent, gross profit from rental properties was $6,522 in 2021.
Tenant turnover costs landlords an estimated $1,795 per month, per unit.
23.3% of landlord-owned rental properties require or have required substantial renovations.
Among landlord-owned properties with reported maintenance expenses,12.17% have annual expenses of $5,000 or more per unit; 43.3% have annual expenses between $1,000 to $4,999 per unit.
Where there are maintenance expenses, landlords spend between $500 and $999 per unit on 26.0% of their properties; landlords spend less than $500 per unit on 18.6% of properties.
Landlords report spending nothing on maintenance for 2.86% of their rental properties.
Maintenance reports are unavailable for 34.4% of landlord-owned properties.
1.02% of landlord-owned properties have no operational expenses of any kind.

Pie chart: Landlords’ Time Spent Managing Rental Properties, Monthly Hours, Individually-Owned Properties Only including 4 hours or less (43.8%), 5 to 9 hours (18.1%), 10 to 19 hours (15.6%), 20 to 39 hours (11.4%), 40 to 79 hours (5.2%), 80 to 119 hours (1.1%), 120 to 159 hours (0.0%), 160 hours or more (1.6%), and Unreported (3.2%) according to the U.S. Census Bureau

Landlord Property Management Statistics

Most landlords also perform day-to-day property management duties, such as collecting rent and responding to tenant calls.

Landlords directly employ managers for 7.30% of their properties.
Landlords work with property management companies for 9.64% of properties.
In 1.65% of landlord-managed rental properties, the owner works full-time as the property manager (160+ hours per month).
In 43.8% of landlord-managed properties, the owner spends less than four hours per month actively managing the property.
Landlords spend less than 20 hours per month managing 77.4% of their properties.
16.6% of landlord-managed properties have owners who spend between 20 and 79 hours per month actively managing.

Property Owner-Managers Average Working Hours
Weekly Hours	Share of Owner Managed Properties	Share of Landlord-Owned Properties
All Owner-Managed	100.0%	80.0%
<1	43.8%	35.0%
1 to 2	18.1%	14.4%
2 to 4	15.6%	12.4%
4 to 9	11.4%	9.15%
9 to 18	5.19%	4.15%
18 to 28	1.12%	0.90%
28 to 37	0.00%	0.00%
37+	1.65%	1.32%
Unreported	3.18%	2.54%
Not applicable	0.00%	20.0%

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.

56% of landlords report less than 10% tenant turnover in a 12-month period.
Tenant turnover is lowest in the Southeast region of the U.S., where 63% of landlords see less than 10% turnover.
9.00% of landlord-owned rental units are open to Section 8 vouchers.
Enforcing an eviction costs landlords an average of $3,500 per eviction.
Th eviction rate in 2022 was 14%, a little less than half of 2019’s 30% eviction rate.
23% of landlords surveyed in 2020 evicted or had plans to evict a tenant for nonpayment (down from 29% in 2019).
In cases where tenants were behind on rent by six (6) months or more, 70% of landlords pursued eviction.
56.7% of landlords report they would evict a renter after one-to-two months of missed rent.

Landlords’ Top Concerns About Tenants
Reporting	Concern	Potential Issue
84%	Payment problems	Tenants may have difficulty paying rent.
56%	Prior eviction history	Evictions may indicate previous problems as a tenant.
45%	Prior criminal history	Arrests or convictions may indicate a pattern of behavior that could impact property or other tenants.
34%	Fraudulent application	If purposeful, application fraud may indicate a pattern of dishonesty.
32%	High maintenance	Tenants may monopolize managers’ time and cost more in frequent repairs or replacements.
11%	Frequent moves	A person may move often for many reasons; difficulty with landlords or neighbors is just one possibility.

Landlord COVID-19 Statistics

The 2020 pandemic and subsequent economic downturn disrupted the residential rental market, including residents’ ability to pay rent.

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.
8.352 million or 5.8% of reporting households were behind on rent payments in the first week of May 2022.
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.

National map: Landlords’ Median Asking Rent by Census Region, 2021, Northeast $1,530, South $1,064, Midwest $905, and West $1,682 according to the U.S. Census Bureau

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 non operating 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