Homeowners are turning their unsold properties into rentals as a near-record (and still rising) pace and becoming “accidental landlords,” according to research by Zillow.
Properties owned by these “accidental landlords” account for more of the listed rental stock than at any time since 2022 — and the trend may not have peaked yet, Zillow noted.
“As the market continues to rebalance, sellers are facing a different reality than they did a few years ago,” said Kara Ng, Senior Economist at Zillow. “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.”
Zillow noted that because it contains both for-sale and rental listings, its platform offers a unique view into how unsold homes are increasingly reentering the market as rentals.
The website stated that the current record was set in November 2022, when 2.4% of the rental stock on Zillow was made up of homes that owners were unable to sell.
Mortgage Rates More Than Doubled
It noted that mortgage rates had more than doubled since the start of that year, skyrocketing from 3.11% to 7.08% by the end of October. Sellers scrambled to adjust to a new market paradigm in which buyer purchasing power had been nearly halved in mere months.
Today’s trend is choice-driven rather than shock-driven, Zillow noted.
The metric is highly seasonal and typically peaks in November, when would-be sellers lose hope at the close of home shopping season. Zillow said its most recent data from October 2025 matches the past October high of 2.3% from 2022, and the past record high of 2.4% from November 2022 is within reach.
Major metros with the highest share of accidental landlords tend to be places where there is less competition among home buyers, Zillow said. Those locations trend toward being more buyer-friendly on Zillow’s Market Heat Index, for-sale listings generally linger longer and price cuts are more common.
Zillow noted that of the top 10, seven are in Texas or Florida. Here are Zillow’s lists of highest and lowest shares of accidental landlords.
