Landlord Statistics [2023 ]: Population, Income & Demographics (2024)

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.

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

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

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.

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

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

1. United States Census Bureau (Census), Rental Housing Finance Survey
2. Census, American Housing Survey
3. U.S. Department of Agriculture, Absent Landlords in Agriculture – A Statistical Analysis
4. AdvisorSmith, Small Business Failure Rate
5. TransUnion SmartMove, 15 Tax Deductions for Landlords During Tax Season
6. SmartMove, 7 Steps to Reducing Payment Problems with Tenants
7. SmartMove, Tenant Turnover, Costs, And How It Can Be Avoided
8. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, CPI Inflation Calculator
9. National Apartment Association, 2021 Survey of Operating Income & Expenses in Rental Apartment Communities
10. National Multifamily Housing Council, NMHC Rent Payment Tracker
11. NMHC, Apartment Industry Quick Facts
12. ZipRecruiter, Landlord Salary
13. Census, Income and Poverty in the United States: 2020
14. U.S. Social Security Administration, National Average Wage Index
15. Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies, Findings and Lessons from Two National Surveys of Landlords
16. Pew Research Center, As National Eviction Ban Expires, A Look at Who Rents and Who Owns in the U.S.
17. Avail Research, Emergency Rental Assistance Programs Failing to Help Landlords and Renters
18. Porch, Renters and Landlords
19. U.S. Department of Commerce Bureau of Economic Analysis, National Income and Product Accounts Handbook Chapter 12: Rental Income of Persons
20. Apartments.com Publishes July 2022 Rent Growth Report
21. Measuring Household Experiences during the Coronavirus Pandemic
22. The True Cost of an Eviction