Independent Landlord Rental Performance Report: August 2025

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

Key Takeaways

• In August 2025, the on-time payment rate in independently operated rental units jumped by 34 basis points (bps), rising to 83.2%.

• On-time payment rates have fallen year-over-year for 25 consecutive months.

• The forecast full-payment rate increased to 93.3%, moving off its post-pandemic low.

• Western states continue to hold the highest on-time payment rates in the country, led by Montana, South Dakota, Hawaii and Wyoming. 

• 2-4-family rental properties rentals held the highest on-time payment rates in August, coming in at 83.8%.

  
  

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National Overview

On-time rental payments in independently operated units improved in August 2025 — a positive development for a sector that has been dogged by declining performance for most of the year-to-date. According to this month’s first estimate, 83.2% of units paid their full rent on time — an increase of 34 basis points (bps) from July.

Meanwhile, July’s on-time payment rate, initially reported at 83.6%, has been revised down to 82.9% — which now stands as the post-pandemic low watermark.

Year-over-Year Change

Despite August’s month-over-month improvement, on-time collections remain down substantially from a year earlier, underscoring that the financial health of renter households remains under stress. Compared to the same time last year, the rate is down a sizable 216 bps. While it currently stands as the third-largest annual decline in the post-pandemic era, it’s an improvement over the prior month’s movement (-279 bps). Nonetheless, August’s year-over-year decline marks 25 straight months of annual deterioration, with the on-time payment rate dropping by 502 bps in that time.

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

Full-Payment Forecast

The forecast full-payment rate for August 2025 — which accounts for on-time, late, and historically anticipated late payments — also rose, landing at 93.3%, up 43 bps from the prior month. Again, the one-month movement brings the forecast full-payment rate up from its post-pandemic low.

Notably, while the drop-off from the peak full-payment rate (97.6% in January 2023) to today remains substantial (428 bps), the slide has been more modest than the on-time payment decline (502 bps).

Late Payments

The primary reason why full collections have fared better than on-time collections is an increased tendency for units to pay rent late. The three-month moving average of late payments in independently operated rentals has risen consistently since the middle of 2024, climbing from a low of 8.8% to a high of 11.7% in June 2025.

Performance by Property Type

Trends within key rental subsectors reveal a widening performance gradient. Among the three tracked property types, 2–4-unit rentals led the way in August 2025 with an on-time payment rate of 83.8%. Single-family rentals (SFR) followed at 83.3%, while multifamily properties trailed with an average on-time collection rate of 82.1%.

Regional Differences

At the state level, continuing a consistent trend, properties in the West outperformed the rest of the country. In August 2025, on-time payment rates were highest in Montana (94.9%), followed by South Dakota (93.3%), Hawaii (92.5%), and Wyoming (92.3%). Rounding out the top five was New Hampshire (92.1%) — the only non-Western state to appear in the top 12.

Analysis

The directional shift in these data is a welcome sign for a trend that had worsened for most of this year. The on-time payment rate fell in every month between April and July, shaving off 298 bps in that time — representing an acute drop in performance. While it is too soon to declare a turnaround, the August datapoint suggests the decline has leveled off.

Where things currently stand, national rent collection continues to point to a difficult financial picture for households living month-to-month. Job growth in the labor market has stalled while the NY Fed’s Q2 Survey on Household Debt and Credit points to worsening delinquency rates for borrowers under the age of 40. Altogether, the macro picture in the US remains murky. However, if the economy can remain on the positive side of growth and avoid a recession, there is hope that rent collection rates may have already moved off their bottom.

Data Findings: By Property Type

Data Findings: By State

Importance of the 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 66,138 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's primary businesses include real estate data science (REDS), economic & market research, and litigation consulting.

About: RentRedi

RentRedi offers an award-winning, comprehensive property management platform that simplifies the renting process for landlords and renters by automating and streamlining processes. For landlords, RentRedi provides all-in-one web and mobile apps to collect rent, list and market vacancies, find and screen tenants, sign leases, and manage maintenance and accounting. For tenants, RentRedi’s easy-to-use mobile app allows them to pay rent, set up auto-pay, build credit by reporting rent payments to major credit agencies, prequalify and sign leases, and submit maintenance requests.Founded in 2016, RentRedi is VC-backed and a proven leader in the PropTech market. The company ranks No. 180 on the 2024 Inc. 5000 list, No. 12 on the Inc. 5000 Regionals list, and was named an Inc. Power Partner, a GetApp Category Leader, a Capterra Established Player, and a G2 High Performer and Momentum Leader based on the software’s user ratings and popularity. To date, RentRedi has more than $35 billion in assets under management with nearly 200,000 landlords and tenants using the platform. The company partners with technology leaders such as Zillow, TransUnion, Experian, Equifax, Realtor.com, Plaid, and Stripe to create the best customer experience possible. For more information visit RentRedi.com.

Methodology

Data are reported on a forward basis from March 2020 through August 2025 (current reporting period). As of the latest month of data availability, the reduced unit sample size totals 66,138. 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 August 16th would be treated as a charge corresponding to September'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.

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