Pet-friendly rentals attract new tenants faster.
That’s according to the online real estate marketplace Zillow, which determined rentals that allow pets are typically leased eight days sooner than those that don’t. The finding is based on a new analysis of more than 11 million rental listings on Zillow.com last year.
Here’s why pet-friendly policies are seen as speeding up renting properties:
- Just under 60% of renters now have pets, up from 46% in 2019.
- That’s nearly a match for the 57% of listings that allow pets.
- There’s more engagement for pet-friendly listings, an average of 9% more views, 12% more saves and 11% more shares.
- Renters are seen as having more leverage due to what’s currently a less competitive market.
The Salt Lake City metropolitan area only partly lines up with the national numbers.
Although slightly more rental listings are pet-friendly in the area in and around Utah’s capital city, 58% compared to 57% nationwide, “these rentals find a tenant three days slower than listings that don’t allow pets,” a Zillow spokesman told the Deseret News.
Texas may be the most pet-friendly state for renters, given that three major metropolitan areas topped the list for biggest share of such listings. In Austin, 80% of rental listings permitted pets, while 79% in Dallas and 78% in San Antonio did the same.
But another big Texas city and surrounding areas, Houston, ranked near the bottom for pet-friendly rental listings on Zillow last year, at 38%. Other cities low on the list were Providence, Rhode Island, at 43% and San Jose, California, at 44%
When it comes to how much quicker rental properties go if pets are allowed, New York City leads the pack. There, pet-friendly places are typically rented 26 days sooner than those that turn down pets.
Other markets where there’s a big gap between the time it takes to rent out a place that takes pets and one that doesn’t are Tampa at 16 days; Columbus, 12 days; Phoenix, 11 days; and Cincinnati and Austin, both 10 days.
Last month, Zillow reported rent growth nationwide “is slightly weaker than normal this spring and is easing, following both an injection of rental inventory and the cooling of the for-sale housing market amid the financial uncertainty that’s leading to buyer hesitancy."
The typical asking rent rose just 0.4% from May to June, hitting $2,049, an increase of 3.2% compared to a year ago, according to Zillow. That’s less than the 0.6% rise from April to May, the post noted, a slowdown that’s helping to give renters more negotiating power.