Most property managers I know make their living on single-family rentals. I do too. The number of SFRs in the country sets the size of our market, so you’d expect PMs to track it closely. I rarely hear anyone bring it up.
The count dropped for six straight years. It’s climbing again now, but the recovery is smaller and more lopsided than the headline number suggests.
The US lost over 1 million single-family rentals in six years
From 2016 to 2022, the country lost about 1.05 million renter-occupied single-family homes, a 6.9% drop. About 1 in 14 SFRs turned back into an owner-occupied home over that stretch.
The count bottomed at about 14.21M in 2022. By 2024, the latest year with data, it reached about 14.39M. That’s 187K more rentals (+1.3%), and it’s real growth. It still leaves us about 865K below the 2016 peak of 15.26M.
Townhomes are doing the heavy lifting
Break the number apart and most of the growth comes from townhomes. Townhome rentals rose in nearly every year, from 2.4M in 2010 to 3.1M in 2024.
Detached houses tell a different story. Detached rentals peaked at 12.5M in 2014 and sat at 11.3M in 2024. Once you factor in the survey’s margin of error, that 2024 figure matches 2023.
Don’t expect a rebound soon
We won’t see 2025 numbers anytime soon, either. The Census Bureau usually publishes them in mid-September. This year it delayed the release indefinitely over a new Commerce Department disclosure rule.
The leading indicators look soft. Built-to-rent starts fell 19% in 2025, from 84K to 68K, and the big SFR REITs have sold more existing homes than they bought. My read: flat-ish for now.
Where the rentals went
Homeowners bought them. Between 2016 and 2024, owner-occupied single-family homes grew by about 10.5M while the rental count shrank. Small landlords sold into a hot market, and individual buyers outbid investors for the houses.
Jay Parsons has made this point on LinkedIn for a while, and he’s right. He also notes that institutional investors own only about 2-3% of the single-family rental market. Mom-and-pop landlords still own the vast majority of it.
Today, 15.8% of single-family homes are rented, down from 18.9% in 2014. Count detached houses alone and the share drops to 13.7%, the lowest since 2011. That’s the figure behind Redfin’s “record low” headline earlier this year. Go back further and 2005-2006 ran even lower, at about 13.1%.
Why every source quotes a different number
You’ll see the SFR count quoted as 11.3M, 14M, 15M+, and everything in between. The spread comes down to what each source counts:
- About 11.3M: detached houses only (Redfin’s figure)
- About 14.4M: detached houses plus townhomes, occupied units (the chart above)
- About 14-16M: John Burns’ estimates, which use their own methodology and which John Burns revises over time
Check which definition a stat uses before you compare it to another one.
What this means for property managers
Our pie shrank six years straight and has started growing again. That’s a national number, though, and the trend almost certainly varies by region. Your metro could be moving the opposite direction, or growing faster than the country as a whole.
One trend works in our favor either way: more and more homeowners hire a professional property manager. I dig into that in the PM Trends 2026 report.
-Peter
Adapted from Tuesday Edition #38 of Peter Lohmann’s Newsletter. Subscribe here for the twice-weekly briefing.