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Mom-and-pop landlords still dominate the single-family rental market, BatchData finds
According to BatchData's analysis, 89.6% of single-family rentals are owned by landlords who hold between 1 and 5 properties.
Lance Lambert
September 26, 2025
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The overlooked power players in SFR: small landlords
Despite all the chatter online about Wall Street landlords and institutional investors, the single-family rental market is still overwhelmingly dominated by everyday owners.
According to a BatchData’s new analysis of every U.S. single-family home, 89.6% of single-family rentals are held by “mom-and-pop” landlords who own between 1 and 5 rental properties.
Some small mom-and-pop landlords view single-family rentals as a supplement to a 401(k)—or even as an outright alternative to one. Some are accidental landlords who chose to keep their starter home as a rental rather than sell it, while others jumped in during the Airbnb boom.
Of course, these figures do vary by market, with institutional players like Invitation Homes, Tricon Residential, and American Homes 4 Rent having a greater concentration in some Sun Belt markets like Atlanta.
In total, BatchData’s analysis calculates that there are 86.5 million single-family homes in the United States.
Of those 86.5 million single-family homes, 15.7 million are single-family rentals, according to BatchData.
7 in 10 outstanding mortgages still carry an interest rate below 5.0%
Among U.S. homeowners who have a mortgage, 70.4% have an interest rate below 5.0% in Q2 2025. That’s according to the Federal Housing Finance Agency's quarterly National Mortgage Database (NMDA) release on Thursday.
For comparison, in Q1 2025, 71.3% of U.S. homeowners with a mortgage had an interest rate below 5.0%.
Even with today’s low levels of housing turnover, life events such as death and divorce—often referred to as the D’s of real estate—continue to generate a baseline level of market activity. That turnover (albeit at low levels), combined with mortgage transactions from mid-2022 through 2025, is gradually increasing the share of outstanding mortgages with rates above 6.0%.
Over the past week, ResiClub PRO members (paid tier) got these 3 additional housing research articles:
Fed Governor Bowman warns of housing market risks: ‘declines in house prices could accelerate'
Speaking at the Kentucky Bankers Association Annual Convention in Asheville, North Carolina, on September 23, 2025, Federal Reserve Governor Michelle Bowman said she’s concerned about the short-term direction of the housing market.
"Declines in housing activity, including single-family home construction and sales, have been accompanied by higher inventories of homes for sale and falling house prices, suggesting that housing demand has also weakened. Elevated mortgage rates may be exerting a more persistent drag as income growth expectations have declined while house prices remain high relative to rents.”
“Given very low housing affordability, existing home sales have remained depressed since 2023 and at levels only comparable with the early 2010s following the financial crisis. I am concerned that, in the current environment, declines in house prices could accelerate, posing downside risks to housing valuations, construction, and inflation."
Bowman’s comments are notable because it underscores a growing unease within the Fed about the housing sector’s trajectory. While the central bank has held interest rates at elevated levels to bring inflation back toward its 2% target, strained housing affordability has pushed some regional housing markets and the homebuilding sector to a point that has drawn the Fed’s attention.
Reading between the lines, it seems Bowman is suggesting that if home prices were to weaken further and residential construction subsequently had to pull back more, it could put additional downward pressure on the labor market (remember: one of the Fed’s dual mandates is to maintain maximum employment).
A Fed governor making a statement like this is a sign they’re growing uneasy with maintaining a restrictive monetary policy stance right now.