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.
A landlord is not the same as a property manager. See our report on the Property Management Industry.
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.
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
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.
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
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.
Sources
- United States Census Bureau (Census), Rental Housing Finance Survey
- Census, American Housing Survey
- U.S. Department of Agriculture, Absent Landlords in Agriculture – A Statistical Analysis
- AdvisorSmith, Small Business Failure Rate
- TransUnion SmartMove, 15 Tax Deductions for Landlords During Tax Season
- SmartMove, 7 Steps to Reducing Payment Problems with Tenants
- SmartMove, Tenant Turnover, Costs, And How It Can Be Avoided
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, CPI Inflation Calculator
- National Apartment Association, 2021 Survey of Operating Income & Expenses in Rental Apartment Communities
- National Multifamily Housing Council, NMHC Rent Payment Tracker
- NMHC, Apartment Industry Quick Facts
- ZipRecruiter, Landlord Salary
- Census, Income and Poverty in the United States: 2020
- U.S. Social Security Administration, National Average Wage Index
- Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies, Findings and Lessons from Two National Surveys of Landlords
- Pew Research Center, As National Eviction Ban Expires, A Look at Who Rents and Who Owns in the U.S.
- Avail Research, Emergency Rental Assistance Programs Failing to Help Landlords and Renters
- Porch, Renters and Landlords
- U.S. Department of Commerce Bureau of Economic Analysis, National Income and Product Accounts Handbook Chapter 12: Rental Income of Persons
- Apartments.com Publishes July 2022 Rent Growth Report
- Measuring Household Experiences during the Coronavirus Pandemic
- The True Cost of an Eviction