Catching up on a missed rent payment isn’t easy. As renters fall further behind, the outlook gets worse. Moving to a cheaper place isn’t likely an option: median asking rents for available apartments were up 15% nationwide in June, according to Redfin (RDFN).
For example, in California, of those who have missed rent payments, 73% are at least a couple of months behind, and 27% are five or more months behind, according to surveys by the Census Bureau. These renters are especially pessimistic about their future housing prospects: Almost two-thirds of renters who are at least two months behind in rent believe it is somewhat or very likely they will be evicted.
In several cities and states, rents have increased dramatically, in some places doubling: average rent in Utah increased 116% from 2021 to 2022. According to the New York Times, recent rent increases have been driven by tenants’ desire for more space and flexibility created by remote work; cost increases on delayed maintenance, and renters being shut out of the home-buying market by rising interest rates.
Around 6 million American households, or 15%, are behind on their rent payments this fall, according to an analysis of data by MyEListing.com, a real estate marketplace. This has remained consistent over the last three years (2020-’22). In some states, a quarter of renters have claimed as recently as 2022 that they are behind on monthly rent payments, the analysis found. Miami had the highest percentage of renters behind on payments, and Americans aged 40 to 54 had the most difficulty keeping up with rent, the analysis found.
>>> Plus: Cities Where Rents Have Gone Up and Down the Most
To find out the states and cities where tenants are most behind on rent payments, MyEListing analyzed the US Census Bureau’s Household Pulse Survey housing data of “Last Month’s Payment Status for Renter Occupied Housing Units” for August 2022, 2021, and 2020. To rank the cities and states, they calculated the percent of respondents who responded to the “Not caught up on rent payments” question relative to the number of survey respondents in 2022. From there, they ranked each state and the top 15 most populated metros based on the latest data available.
These are the 15 most populated metros where tenants are most behind on rent in 2022, followed by the states most behind on rent.
