How badly are U.S. adults struggling as inflation makes everything from mortgages and cars to egs and gas more expensive? More than 8 million of them had fallen behind on their apartment rents as of February of this year.
That’s the surprising statistic from a March 27 report from LendingTree. Analyzing U.S. Census data collected from Feb. 1 to Feb. 13, LendingTree found that more than 8.07 million people 18 or older in the United States aren’t caught up on their monthly rent payments.
This means that 13.7% of the country’s adult renters living in a household that charges them rent are behind on their monthly payments.
Another interesting finding from LendingTree’s report? More than 3.5 million U.S. adults live in in a household that doesn’t pay any rent. People in these households don’t own their homes or make mortgage payments. Nor do they live with someone who does. Instead, they occupy a rental housing unit where rent isn’t paid or contracted.
How does this happen? Some might be serving as caretakers of a property whose owners provide the home rent-free in exchange for their work. These people aren’t living rent-free because they are behind on their rent. Rather, they are living a rent-free life because their household isn’t being charged rent.
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Why are so many people behind on their apartment rents? It could be because renting, like everything else, has gotten more expensive.
LendingTree reported that during the past year, 53.03% of renters across the United States saw their monthly rent increase. A total of 36.91% saw no increase and only 1.75% had their monthly rent fall.
The majority of renters who say that their monthly rent payments increased reported jumps from $100 to $249 a month.
Here is some good news from the Midwest: The state with the lowest percentage of people behind on their rent payments was located in this region, Kansas.
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According to LendingTree, only 6.11% of renters in Kansas were behind on their monthly rent. And in fellow Midwest state Nebraska, only 6.18% of renters were behind, making Nebraska the state with the second-lowest share of renters behind on their payments.
Two other Midwest states also made the top-10 list of states with the lowest percentage of renters behind on their payments: Indiana, which ranked ninth, and Iowa, which ranked 10th.