Accidental Landlords Rise to Three-Year High

When Homes Don’t Sell… They Turn Into Rentals (Here’s the Opportunity)

A recent report from Zillow says unsold listings are making up a growing share of the rental market — the second-largest on record and trending upward. They say 2.3% of homes listed for rent on Zillow were recently listed for sale – the last time the share of “accidental landlords” was higher was in November 2022. States with the largest share of these accidental-landlord properties are Texas and Florida, along with Denver, Portland and Nashville markets.

“As the market continues to rebalance, sellers are facing a different reality than they did a few years ago…Bargaining power is tilting toward buyers and homes are taking longer to sell, making renting out a property one way to buy time rather than compete aggressively on price. After all, today’s sellers are rarely forced to sell, and it appears they are often unwilling to budge off of what their heart says their home is worth.” Said Kara Ng, senior economist at Zillow.