Independent Landlord Rental Performance Report: April 2026

Monthly Tracker of On-Time Payments in Non-Institutional ("Mom-and-Pop") Rental Properties

Key Takeaways

On-time payments increased to 84.5%, now 223 basis points above the September 2025 low, marking the sixth increase in the past seven months
Year-over-year, collections remain 119 basis points below April 2025 levels, extending the streak of annual declines to 33 consecutive months, though the pace of deterioration continues to ease
Forecast full-payment rates strengthened to 97.2%, the highest level since May 2025, reflecting continued improvement in overall payment resolution
Late-payment pressure remains elevated, stabilizing at relatively high levels after peaking in early 2026, with spring forecasts suggesting modest, partially seasonal improvement
Western and Mountain states continue to lead national performance, with multiple markets posting on-time payment rates above 90%

The Bottom Line Upfront

Recent national data point to continued improvement across independently operated rental properties. On-time payment rates increased again in April, marking the sixth gain in the past seven months and extending the recovery from the September 2025 low. Some of this improvement likely reflects seasonal support, as spring tax refunds tend to provide households with a temporary infusion of cash that can help ease rent payment pressures. Even so, the recent rebound has been broad enough to suggest that stabilization in rent collection performance remains intact.

At the same time, the nature of the improvement remains uneven beneath the surface.Full-payment rates have strengthened meaningfully, indicating that a larger share of missed payments are ultimately being cured rather than remaining unpaid, even as payment timing remains strained. But late payments remain elevated and appear to have stabilized at relatively high levels, suggesting that underlying stress on household finances has not fully abated. This remains a meaningful challenge for independent landlords, for whom cash-flow timing can be just as important as ultimate payment resolution.

The broader macroeconomic backdrop adds another layer of complexity. Households and the US economy have remained resilient, but there were already visible signs of fatigue at the household level before the recent run-up in energy prices. The longer that energy costs remain elevated, the more likely it is that the cumulative pressure on renter budgets will intensify. For tenants already operating on the margin, sustained increases in living costs could slow further improvement in rent collection performance, even if current trends remain constructive.

National Overview

On-time rental payments in independently operated units moved higher again in April 2026, marking the sixth increase in the past seven months and reinforcing the stabilization trend that emerged late last year. According to the latest data, 84.5% of units paid their full rent on time in April, up from 83.3% in March. On-time payment rates are now 223 basis points above their September 2025 low, signaling a continued recovery in payment performance.

Part of this recent improvement may reflect seasonal factors. Rent collection performance typically strengthens in the spring months, particularly in March and April, as tax refunds provide a temporary boost to household liquidity. While this dynamic appears to be supporting recent gains, it does not fully account for the broader stabilization trend observed since late 2025.

As additional payment data have been incorporated, prior month estimates have been revised modestly. March’s on-time payment rate, initially reported at 83.9%, has since been revised down to 83.3%. These revisions reflect the typical reconciliation process as late-arriving payments are fully accounted for, along with the incorporation of ex post manual entries, and do not materially alter the broader trend of stabilization entering mid-2026.

Note: As of May 2024, monthly data estimates are reported as a three-month moving average.

Year-over-Year Change

Despite continued month-to-month improvement, on-time payment rates remain below year-ago levels. Compared to April 2025, on-time collections are down by 119 basis points, extending the streak of year-over-year declines to 33 consecutive months.

That said, the pace of annual deterioration continues to ease. Year-over-year gaps that exceeded 300 basis points during the late summer and fall of 2025 have narrowed materially in recent months. With on-time payment rates now 223 basis points above their September 2025 low, the data continue to point toward stabilization and a gradual rebuilding of payment performance as the sector moves further into 2026.

Full-Payment Rate: Historical & Forecast

The forecast full-payment rate for April 2026 — which accounts for on-time, late, and historically anticipated late payments — is estimated at 97.2%, representing a notable increase from March levels and marking the strongest projected outcome since May 2025. This points to continued improvement in overall rent collection outcomes, even as on-time payment rates remain below prior-cycle highs.

The average monthly full-payment rate for 2025 stood at approximately 96.0%, placing performance between the 2023 average (96.6%) and the 2024 average (95.3%). This reinforces the view that income realization for independent landlords has remained relatively resilient despite elevated late-payment activity.

Late Payments

Late payments remain the primary source of underperformance for the mom-and-pop rental sector. While late payments are generally less damaging to property-level economics than outright nonpayment, they continue to pose a meaningful operational challenge. Independent landlords rely heavily on timely rental income to meet recurring expenses, making payment delays particularly disruptive.

Late-payment activity rose steadily through much of 2024 and 2025, climbing from a cycle low of 8.4% to a post-pandemic high of 13.5% in January 2026. Since then, the pace of deterioration has eased, but late payments have remained elevated. Forecast late-payment rates for March and April stand at 12.4% and 12.7%, respectively, suggesting some improvement through the spring, though seasonal factors likely account for part of that moderation.

Even so, late-payment pressure remains well above longer-run norms. Rather than pointing to a full normalization in renter finances, recent data suggest that late payments have stabilized at relatively high levels, indicating that financial strain among renter households remains a meaningful headwind. At the same time, stronger full-collection rates suggest that a larger share of missed payments are ultimately being cured rather than remaining unpaid. So long as late payments remain elevated, however, the scope for further improvement in on-time payment rates will be limited. Functionally, sustained progress in on-time collections will require late-payment rates to move lower.

Performance by Property Type

Performance across rental subsectors continues to show a clear gradient. In April 2026, 2–4-family rentals once again led all property types, posting an on-time payment rate of 85.3%. Single-family rentals followed at 84.6%, while multifamily properties remained the weakest-performing segment at 83.7%.

All three subsectors recorded month-over-month improvement, extending the broader recovery trend observed at the national level. The strongest performance continued to come from smaller property types, which have generally shown greater resilience throughout the cycle.

While on-time payment rates remain below earlier-cycle highs across all segments, recent gains have been broadly shared. This suggests that the improvement in rent collection performance is not confined to a single property type, but rather reflects a more generalized strengthening across the independently operated rental market.

Regional Differences

At the state level, regional performance patterns remained broadly consistent in April 2026. Western and Mountain states continued to lead the nation, with Alaska (96.0%), Utah (93.1%), New Hampshire (93.0%), Colorado (91.9%), and Idaho (91.2%) posting the highest on-time payment rates.

Performance at the lower end of the distribution remained concentrated in parts of the Southeast and Mid-Atlantic. Mississippi (75.1%), Delaware (77.7%), and Maryland (78.3%) recorded the weakest on-time payment rates nationally, with several additional states clustering in the low-80% range.

While dispersion across states remains notable, the broader pattern of Western and Mountain outperformance continues to hold. These regional differences reflect persistent variation in local economic conditions, renter income profiles, and cost burdens, which continue to shape rent collection outcomes across markets.

Importance of the Independent Landlord Rental Performance Report

The Independent Landlord Rental Performance report provides valuable insights into how well non-institutional landlords are managing rental payments. It uses data from property management software RentRedi, showcasing results from 65,093 units. Information is collected and reported monthly by Chandan Economics. The trends highlighted here can serve as a benchmark for investors, brokers, and policymakers to understand the health of independent landlords in the rental market.

About: Chandan Economics

Chandan Economics is an economic advisory and data science firm serving the commercial real estate industry. The firm provides bespoke research, analytics, and advisory services to investors, lenders, operators, and public- and private-sector clients. Core practice areas include real estate data science (REDS), economic and market research, and litigation consulting, with a focus on translating complex data into clear, decision-relevant insight.

About: RentRedi

RentRedi is the leading comprehensive, data-powered rental management software for smart landlords and investors. It helps landlords and their tenants rent smarter by providing all the tools and intelligence needed to optimize portfolios, boost retention, reduce turnover, and improve the lives of everyone in the rental process. By combining real-time data, user behavior insights, and customer feedback with a modern, intuitive interface, RentRedi delivers solutions that help savvy real estate investors increase revenue, reduce risk, save time, minimize friction, and improve relationships. For landlords, the all-in-one web and mobile app streamlines rent collection, listings, tenant screening, lease signing, maintenance coordination, accounting, and more. For their tenants, it includes online rent payment, auto-pay, credit building and boosting, 24/7 maintenance requests, among other services. Founded in 2016, RentRedi is VC-backed and a proven PropTech leader. It has been recognized by the Inc. 5000, Inc. Power Partners, Fast Company’s Next Big Things in Tech, and HousingWire’s Tech100. With more than $33 billion in assets under management and nearly 300,000 landlords and tenants using its platform, RentRedi partners with leading technology providers including Zillow, TransUnion, Experian, Equifax, Realtor.com, Lessen, Thumbtack, Plaid, and Stripe to create the best customer experience possible. Learn more at RentRedi.com.

Methodology

Data are reported on a forward basis from March 2020 through April 2026 (current reporting period). As of the latest month of data availability, the reduced unit sample size totals 65,093. Rent charges are measured on a 15th-to-15th-of-the-month basis. Rent charges that are issued after the 15th of the current month are treated as a rent charge for the following rent-tracking period. (E.g., a rent charge sent on February 16th would be treated as a charge corresponding to March's owed rental payment.) Monthly estimates are represented as a three-month moving average.

Only charges designated as "rental income" are included for analysis. Rent charges below $500 and above $10,000 are excluded from this analysis.

Units that have not paid any form of rental income (full or partial) in the previous 60 days at the time a new rental charge is issued are removed from the sample tracking sample. Unpaid units refer to all units that have yet to fully satisfy their owed rents for a collection period. These unpaid units include units that have only partially paid their rent. As a means of reporting standardization, units with more than one monthly rent charge (E.g., rent paid weekly) are removed from the rent tracking sample.

COMMERCIAL REAL ESTATE'S ECONOMIC ADVISORS