Rent reporting is a process whereby landlords or property management companies provide data on tenants’ rental payments to at least one of the three major consumer credit bureaus. This gives renters an opportunity to demonstrate their credit worthiness by documenting on-time rent payments. To understand how rent reporting is growing in the US, we examined rent reporting data from 2020 to 2024 for all US states.

Why This Matters

Credit scores can affect access to financial products, housing, and employment: a low credit score or lack of a credit score can mean less access or higher costs. Yet it can be difficult for people, and particularly renters, to find reliable ways to build credit. In response, the major credit scoring models are updating their scoring algorithms to include rental payments in credit score calculations. Yet rent reporting is growing faster in some parts of the country than in others.

What We Found

Between 2020 and 2024, the share of renter households who had any of their rent payments reported quadrupled, from about 3 percent of renter households in 2020 to 13 percent in 2024. Over this time period, the share of renter households actively participating in rent payment reporting grew from about 2 percent to nearly 7 percent.

There are some significant differences across states in how rent reporting has grown. By 2024, 10 states had more than 10 percent of renter households actively reporting, with Georgia the highest at 14 percent. Seven states had only 1 percent of renter households actively reporting in 2024. Some of the most rapid growth in rent reporting happened in Florida, Nevada, Arizona, and Georgia.

We estimate a modest relationship between the share of renter households living in large multifamily buildings (with 50 or more units) and the share reporting rent; we estimate a correlation coefficient of 0.32. A stronger relationship appears between the share of households in new, large multifamily developments and rent reporting. Here, we estimate a correlation coefficient of 0.61. This might mean that new buildings are more likely to offer rent reporting or that new tenants are more likely to enroll. It may also indicate new development loan requirements that specify landlords or property managers must offer a rent reporting program.

The findings do not imply that new multifamily development is the only factor explaining the growth of rent reporting. For instance, a growing number of financial services companies offer rent reporting services directly to renters and offer landlords services that integrate with existing rent payment platforms.

How We Did It

To understand how rent reporting is growing, we combined US Census Bureau population estimates and American Community Survey data with statistics on rent reporting in each state provided by TransUnion. We then estimated the share of renter households who had active rent reporting tradelines, the number of people with a rent payment history per renter household, and the share of renter households that live in new large multifamily developments. We explored changes between 2020 and 2024 in the number of open rental tradelines, the share of households renting, and the share of households in large multifamily buildings and examined correlation between these figures.