The short answer
Separate survey responses, listing prices and actual rent records before comparing a year of rental trends. Use a review worksheet to preserve dates, definitions and missing evidence.
On this page
Identify the report year and the evidence dates
Start with the report's title, publisher, original publication date, latest update and the periods represented by each dataset. A report published after a year ends may describe the previous year. A recently updated web page does not make its historical observations current.
Record the date on which you accessed the version. Identify which claims are observations, hypotheses, explanations or forecasts. A forecast about the next year should remain a dated forecast, even after that year has passed. Check current local requirements separately before using old discussions of notices, eviction restrictions or screening practices in an operational decision.
This is a written method guide, with an archive topic year of 2021. Rentari has not conducted or reproduced the publisher's historical survey, listing study or annual research report.
Separate the datasets before combining the story
| Evidence | What to identify | What it does not establish alone |
|---|---|---|
| Landlord survey | Respondents, question, period and unit of response | Every rental household's settled payment |
| Renter survey | Participating people, question and reference month | The same population as a separate landlord survey |
| Rental listings | Observed listings, dates, geography and property mix | Signed lease prices or all occupied homes |
| Your payment records | Actual account, charges, settlement dates and adjustments | A representative national trend |
Keep these sources as separate series. A platform's total user count or a listing partner's advertised database size is not the number of usable responses or listings in each month and city. Ask for the actual sample and exclusions used for the specific result.
Clarify whether one landlord answered for a portfolio, one property or each unit. Do not convert the percentage of responding landlords into the percentage of tenants or rent dollars without evidence for that conversion.
Check each month before describing an annual trend
Record the question wording, response options, fieldwork dates, eligible population, response count, missing answers, recruitment method and any weighting. Check whether the same participants returned each month or a changing group responded. A larger distribution list is not the response count.
Compare full, partial and no payment only when the definitions, reference month and denominator match. A payment plan, canceled charge or agreement to wait may be a separate arrangement rather than another mutually exclusive payment outcome. Check whether percentages are rounded and whether respondents could select more than one answer.
When a chart, paragraph and takeaway disagree, preserve the discrepancy and request clarification. Do not silently average the conflicting numbers or choose the one that supports a stronger story. An annual average also needs a stated method: an equal average of monthly percentages differs from combining the underlying counts when sample sizes vary.
When a landing page and its downloaded report describe different samples, recruitment channels or fieldwork dates, keep both versions and ask which applies to the specific chart. Leave an unresolved sample size unresolved. AAPOR's disclosure standards identify question wording, population, recruitment, dates, sample sizes and weighting as information needed to review survey results. For a multiple-selection question, percentages of respondents can overlap and need not total 100 percent. A share of all selections uses a different denominator. Do not add positive and negative categories to count unique people, treat them as opposite groups, or calculate an unreported overlap without the underlying responses.
Keep confidence, payment and legal steps distinct
A renter's confidence about paying next month's rent is a prospective response. It is different from a payment initiated, funds settled or a charge satisfied for the current month. A preferred or reported payment method does not establish the amount received or whether a transfer was returned.
Similarly, a landlord considering an eviction, delivering a notice, filing a case and obtaining an outcome are different stages. Record exactly which stage the question measures, with its period and population. Do not treat an intention percentage as a count of completed removals or use a historical report as the current notice procedure.
For your own records, retain the due period, actual amount, settled date, agreed adjustment and unresolved issue. A survey trend can prompt a review of communication or recordkeeping; it cannot determine the outcome of an individual tenancy.
Read owner finances and renter resources by definition
Distinguish a landlord's reported use of savings, borrowing, mortgage forbearance, proportion of income from rent and actual property cash flow. A temporary payment arrangement is not the same measure as rent arrears, a forgiven obligation or a profitable property. Record the question and period rather than inferring a balance from a response category.
Renter income bands, use of a credit card and reported borrowing describe different things. A changing income-group mix can affect an aggregate comparison even when the report gives no evidence about the same households over time. Do not infer debt amounts, ability to pay or individual eligibility from a broad survey category.
Keep actual household and property information private and use it only through the applicable reviewed process. This worksheet organizes research evidence; it does not assess a person's creditworthiness or calculate a property's accounting result.
Review subgroup and communication claims carefully
For each subgroup, ask for its response count, missing data and comparison base. A small or unavailable group cannot support a confident statement about everyone in that group. Missing evidence should remain missing; it should not be filled with a prediction that another demographic group's pattern probably applies.
Do not turn aggregate race, national origin, disability, family or other protected-group results into an applicant score or a tenancy decision. Fair housing requirements and individual application review need their own current process. A platform's participant mix is not automatically the population of the country or your property.
For communication results, separate preferred channel, actual channel used, contact frequency and change since a named baseline. Check whether people could report several channels and whether owner and renter questions differed. Offer the appropriate accessible contact route; choosing text, email or another channel does not itself show payment reliability.
A count of completed questionnaires across several surveys is not automatically a count of unique people. Check whether repeated responses were linked and whether the same people answered before treating a change as an individual trend. For ratings, keep the average score separate from the share choosing the highest score, with each question's scale and denominator. For opinion questions, retain unsure, unanswered and not-applicable responses; a percentage among people expressing an opinion differs from a percentage of everyone asked. An aggregate preference or willingness-to-pay response is not an agreed lease term.
Test listing-price comparisons against the market method
Identify whether the series shows asking rents, achieved rents, a mean, a median or another statistic. Record the geographic boundary, observation window, bedroom count, property type, duplicate handling and treatment of unavailable or withdrawn listings. A change in the share of larger or higher-priced homes can change an average without establishing a change for comparable homes.
Compare the same defined market and property mix over suitable periods, and note seasonality or overlapping windows. Show the base counts where available. A partner's large overall database does not establish adequate observations for every city, bedroom category and month.
Use current, dated comparables and your property's actual costs when evaluating a proposed rent. The annual national narrative, an old city average and a quoted forecast are context, not a guaranteed price for a particular home.
Write a limited summary with the evidence beside it
Download annual report review (CSV)
Complete one worksheet row for each claim or series. Preserve the source link, reference period, unit, denominator, definitions, result, uncertainty and any conflict. Leave unavailable counts or methodology explicitly marked unavailable rather than inventing them.
- State what the named source actually measured and when.
- Keep landlord, renter, listing and your own record findings separate.
- Explain which comparisons have matching definitions and which do not.
- Distinguish the author's interpretation from the measured observation.
- List missing evidence and the follow-up needed before using the claim.
- Propose a limited next step, such as reviewing dated comparables or improving records.
Label any arithmetic example as hypothetical. Do not create a branded annual chart from unsupported figures or imply Rentari surveyed respondents whose data it does not hold. Share only an appropriately reviewed summary, without identifiable resident records.
Sources and further reading
Keep learning
Archive years group longstanding rental topics. This Rentari guide was published on 2026-10-03.
Written and maintained by the Rentari team. Examples explain a decision; they are not customer results. Found an error or an unclear step? Send a correction with this page's address and the detail to review.
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