How badly are U.S. adults struggling as inflation makes everything from mortgages and cars to egs and gas more expensive? More than 8 million of them had fallen behind on their apartment rents as of February of this year.
That’s the surprising statistic from a March 27 report from LendingTree. Analyzing U.S. Census data collected from Feb. 1 to Feb. 13, LendingTree found that more than 8.07 million people 18 or older in the United States aren’t caught up on their monthly rent payments.
This means that 13.7% of the country’s adult renters living in a household that charges them rent are behind on their monthly payments.
Another interesting finding from LendingTree’s report? More than 3.5 million U.S. adults live in in a household that doesn’t pay any rent. People in these households don’t own their homes or make mortgage payments. Nor do they live with someone who does. Instead, they occupy a rental housing unit where rent isn’t paid or contracted.
How does this happen? Some might be serving as caretakers of a property whose owners provide the home rent-free in exchange for their work. These people aren’t living rent-free because they are behind on their rent. Rather, they are living a rent-free life because their household isn’t being charged rent.
Why are so many people behind on their apartment rents? It could be because renting, like everything else, has gotten more expensive.
LendingTree reported that during the past year, 53.03% of renters across the United States saw their monthly rent increase. A total of 36.91% saw no increase and only 1.75% had their monthly rent fall.
The majority of renters who say that their monthly rent payments increased reported jumps from $100 to $249 a month.
Here is some good news from the Midwest: The state with the lowest percentage of people behind on their rent payments was located in this region, Kansas.
According to LendingTree, only 6.11% of renters in Kansas were behind on their monthly rent. And in fellow Midwest state Nebraska, only 6.18% of renters were behind, making Nebraska the state with the second-lowest share of renters behind on their payments.
Two other Midwest states also made the top-10 list of states with the lowest percentage of renters behind on their payments: Indiana, which ranked ninth, and Iowa, which ranked 10th.
