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Independent Landlord Rental Performance Report: September 2025
- The Chandan Economics Research Team
- 8 hours ago
- 6 min read
Monthly Tracker of On-Time Payments in Non-Institutional ("Mom-and-Pop") Rental Properties
Key Takeaways
In September 2025, the on-time payment rate in independently operated rental units jumped by 58 basis points (bps), rising to 83.1%.
On-time payment rates have fallen year-over-year for 26 consecutive months.
Late-payment rates have risen in recent months, while full-payment rates have proven more resilient — signaling that tenants are prioritizing catching up on rent when they fall behind.
Western states continue to hold the highest on-time payment rates in the country, led by South Dakota, Hawaii, and Utah.
2–4-unit rentals held the highest on-time payment rates in September, coming in at 83.7%.
National Overview
On-time rental payments in independently operated units improved in September 2025 — offering hope that the sector is moving off its performance floor. According to this month’s first estimate, 83.1% of units paid their full rent on time — an increase of 58 basis points (bps) from August.
Meanwhile, August’s on-time payment rate, initially reported at 83.2%, has been revised down to 82.6% — turning a modest improvement into a slight dip.
Year-over-Year Change
Despite September’s month-over-month improvement, on-time collections remain down substantially from a year earlier. Compared to the same time last year, the rate is down a sizable 227 bps. Notably, on-time collections have now fallen year-over-year for 26 consecutive months, marking a sustained period of sliding performance. However, while it will likely take time for the annual declines to reverse into gains, the process already appears to be underway. The severity of year-over-year declines has lessened over the past two months.
Note: As of May 2024, monthly data estimates are reported as a three-month moving average.
Full-Payment Rate: Historical & Forecast
The forecast full-payment rate for September 2025 — which accounts for on-time, late, and historically anticipated late payments — increased by 14 bps from the prior month, landing at 94.5%.
August’s forecast full-payment rate of 94.4% currently stands as the lowest on record, though it is subject to modest revision. Late payments have exceeded historical norms in recent months. While that has led to an appreciable slide in the on-time payment rate, it also suggests that tenants are prioritizing catching up on rent when they fall behind. The average full-payment rate in the first six months of the year was 96.2% — placing it between the 2023 average (96.6%) and the 2024 average (95.3%).
Late Payments
Late payments have proven to be the primary source of underperformance for the mom-and-pop rental sector. While late payments are not as debilitating to property-level economics as outright missed payments, they are still a significant headache for operators. 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 8.4% to a high of 12.5% in July 2025. The forecast late-payment rates (3-month moving averages) for August and September currently sit at 12.3% and 11.8%, respectively.
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 September 2025 with an on-time payment rate of 83.7%. Single-family rentals (SFR) followed at 83.3%, while multifamily properties trailed with an average on-time collection rate of 81.7%.
Regional Differences
At the state level, continuing a consistent trend, properties in the West outperformed the rest of the country. However, a few East Coast states (and districts) are starting to move up the leaderboard. In September 2025, on-time payment rates were highest in South Dakota (94.9%), followed by Hawaii (94.6%) and Utah (94.1%). Just missing out on the podium are New Hampshire (91.4%) and Colorado (91.1%).
Analysis
Recent national data have both positive and negative takeaways for the independently operated rental sector. On-time collections remain significantly impaired compared to where they were following the pandemic. In April 2023, the on-time payment rate rose to a record high of 88.3%. Compared to then, September’s first estimate is down by a sizable 511 bps. In other words, an additional 1-in-20 rental units are not paying rent on time.
The drop-off in timeliness is consistent with additional data points that suggest households living paycheck to paycheck are falling further behind. Credit card delinquency rates in Q2 2025 sat at 8.6% — more than double where they were in Q4 2021 (4.1%). Moreover, student loan delinquencies — a debt category that disproportionately impacts young renters — have soared to an all-time high of 13.0%.
Notwithstanding the above, evidence suggests tenants are still prioritizing paying rent, even when they fall behind. September’s forecast full-payment rate (94.5%) is down 308 bps from the market peak in early 2023 — a less severe decline than the on-time measure. Similarly, the full-payment rate is down by far less (-88 bps) year-over-year than the on-time payment rate (-227 bps). Moreover, because these data consider partially satisfied rents as unpaid, the deterioration to property-level income is likely even smaller.
As operators need tenant income to pay their operating expenses, rising late payments as a percentage of total collections is not harmless. However, the data above suggest we are moving off the performance floor, with rising on-time and forecast full-collection rates for September. So long as the labor market does not swing toward significant job losses and inflation remains under reasonable control, a modest recovery in on-time collections in the months ahead is the baseline outlook.
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 September 2025 (current reporting period). As of the latest month of data availability, the reduced unit sample size totals 66,950. 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 September 16th would be treated as a charge corresponding to October'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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