Independent Landlord Rental Performance Report: May 2026

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

Key Takeaways

1. On-time payments reached 84.5% in May, leaving collections 223 basis points above the September 2025 low and reinforcing the broader recovery trend that has taken hold since late 2025

2. Year over year, on-time collections remained 48 basis points below May 2025 levels, extending the streak of annual declines to 34 consecutive months, though the pace of deterioration has eased meaningfully

3. The forecast full-payment rate for May rose to 97.1%, the highest level since May 2025, pointing to continued strength in overall payment resolution

4. Late-payment pressure remains elevated, with forecasts suggesting only modest spring improvement, indicating that renter financial strain has eased more slowly than on-time collection trends alone would suggest

5. State-level performance remained uneven, with Western and Mountain states continuing to lead the country and several markets posting on-time payment rates above 90%

   
   

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The Bottom Line Upfront

Rent collection performance across independently operated rental properties continues to stabilize, but the improvement remains uneven beneath the surface. Full-payment rates have strengthened, indicating that a larger share of missed payments are ultimately being cured rather than remaining unpaid. But late payments remain elevated and are coming down only gradually, suggesting that underlying strain on renter balance sheets has not fully abated. For independent landlords, that distinction matters. Cash-flow timing can be nearly as important as ultimate payment resolution, and elevated late-payment activity continues to limit how much of the recovery is being felt in real time.

The broader macro backdrop adds another layer of risk. Signs of household strain were already visible before the recent run-up in energy prices, and newer credit data suggest that financial pressure is becoming more pronounced among households on the margin. That concern has become more relevant as inflation has reaccelerated. If energy-driven price pressure persists, it could weigh further on renter budgets and slow the pace of improvement in rent collection performance, even if the current trend remains directionally positive.

National Overview

On-time rental payments in independently operated units moved higher again in May 2026, continuing the broader improvement that has taken hold since late 2025. According to the latest data, 84.5% of units paid their full rent on time in May, up from April’s revised estimate of 83.9%. While recent monthly gains should be interpreted with some caution, given the pattern of initial estimates being revised lower, on-time payment rates are now 223 basis points above their September 2025 low, pointing to a gradual recovery in payment performance over the past several months.

Some of this recent improvement may still reflect seasonal support. Rent collection performance often benefits during the spring months as tax refunds provide households with a temporary liquidity boost. Even so, the current trend appears broader than a purely seasonal rebound. On-time payment rates have now increased in seven of the past eight months, reinforcing the view that rent collection conditions have been stabilizing as the sector moves further into 2026.

As additional payment data have been incorporated, prior month estimates have again been revised modestly lower. April’s on-time payment rate, initially reported at 84.5%, has since been revised down to 83.9%. 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 improvement in recent months, on-time payment rates remained modestly below year-ago levels in May. Compared to May 2025, on-time collections were down by 48 basis points, extending the streak of year-over-year declines to 34 consecutive months.

Even so, the pace of annual deterioration has slowed meaningfully. Year-over-year gaps that exceeded 300 basis points during the late summer and fall of 2025 have narrowed substantially, and the current shortfall is far less severe than it was just a few months ago. With on-time payment rates now 223 basis points above their September 2025 low, the broader trend continues to point toward stabilization and a gradual rebuilding in rent collection performance as 2026 progresses.

Full-Payment Rate: Historical & Forecast

The forecast full-payment rate for May 2026 — which accounts for on-time, late, and historically anticipated late payments — is estimated at 97.1%, marking the strongest projected outcome since May 2025. This points to continued resilience in overall rent collection outcomes, even as on-time payment rates remain below prior-cycle highs.

Observed full-payment rates through the first two months of 2026 have averaged 96.3%, putting the year-to-date pace slightly ahead of the 2025 full-year average of 96.0%. This reinforces the view that income realization for independent landlords has remained relatively stable 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 and February 2026. Since then, the pace of deterioration has eased, but improvement has been gradual. Forecast late-payment rates for March, April, and May stand at 12.7%, 12.9%, and 12.6%, respectively, suggesting only modest movement lower through the spring.

Even with that recent easing, late-payment pressure remains well above longer-run norms and has not reversed nearly as quickly as it deteriorated. Rather than signaling a full normalization in renter finances, the data suggest that late payments have stabilized at elevated 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 remain 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 May 2026, 2–4-family rentals once again led all property types, posting an on-time payment rate of 85.4%. Single-family rentals followed at 84.6%, while multifamily properties remained the weakest-performing segment at 83.3%.

All three subsectors recorded month-over-month improvement, extending the broader recovery trend observed at the national level. Even so, recent recovery patterns have become somewhat more uneven beneath the surface. Smaller property types have continued to show greater resilience, while multifamily appears to be lagging the rebound seen in the other two segments.

While on-time payment rates remain below earlier-cycle highs across all segments, recent gains have still been broadly shared. This suggests that rent collection performance has continued to improve across the independently operated market, albeit at a somewhat different pace by property type.

Regional Differences

At the state level, regional performance patterns remained broadly consistent in May 2026. Western and Mountain states continued to lead the nation, joined by a few standout performers elsewhere. Alaska (93.5%), Hawaii (93.4%), New Hampshire (93.1%), the District of Columbia (92.7%), and Colorado (92.6%) posted the highest on-time payment rates in the country.

Performance at the lower end of the distribution remained concentrated across parts of the South, Appalachia, and selected eastern states. Mississippi (66.3%), Michigan (77.4%), West Virginia (78.3%), Illinois (79.7%), and Maryland (79.9%) recorded the weakest on-time payment rates nationally.

While dispersion across states remains notable, the broader pattern of Western and Mountain outperformance continues to hold. These regional differences likely 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 63,038 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 May 2026 (current reporting period). As of the latest month of data availability, the reduced unit sample size totals 63,038. 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 May 16th would be treated as a charge corresponding to June'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.