Zillow: ‘Accidental Landlords’ on the Rise

(Image courtesy of Ivan S/pexels.com)

Zillow, Seattle, released a new analysis, finding that there are a rising number of homeowners putting their unsold homes up for rent–making them “accidental landlords.”

On Zillow’s rental platform in October 2025 (the latest data available), 2.3% of homes were recently listed for sale. That’s the second-highest rate, following November 2022’s 2.4%. October 2022 also stood at 2.3%.

“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.”

Generally, metros with the highest share of “accidental landlords” are places where there’s less competition among home buyers. And, they’re less likely to be found in places where competition for homes is hot.

Metros with the highest share of accidental landlords include Denver, at 4.9%, Houston, at 4.2%, Austin, at 4.1%, San Antonio, at 3.9%, and Portland, Ore., at 3.7%. Metros with the lowest such share include Providence, R.I., at 0.6%, Boston, at 0.6%, New York, at 0.7%, Hartford, Conn., at 0.8%, and Buffalo, N.Y., at 0.8%.

Detached single-family homes are most likely to be owned by an accidental landlord, with 3.4% of single-family homes listed on the platform for rent. That compares with 2.2% for townhouses and 1.1% for condos. However, the share of condo “accidental landlords” has risen the most over the past five years, Zillow noted.