Nearly 93% of Utah renters paid their landlords on time in August, new data shows.
Only Wyoming renters had a better on-time payment rate last month, at more than 95%, according to a monthly analysis by the rental software company RentRedi and Chandan Economics using information from more than 59,000 independent landlords around the country.
“Rent collection has felt like a coin flip for a lot of independent landlords over the past two years,” RentRedi’s Crystal Abing said in a post pointing out that’s changed, with “the coin landing on the right side two months in a row.”
Nationwide, the analysis found 83.2% of renters paid their landlords on time in August, up from a revised 82.8% in July. The 0.85 percentage point year-over-year increase in collections from August 2025 was described as the strongest annual gain since May 2023.
Renters living in apartments, condominiums and other larger multi-family properties were credited for most of the August rebound, rather than renters in duplexes, fourplexes or single-family homes.
Landlords in western and mountain states fared the best, where the analysis said “markets tend to combine stronger renter household finances with tighter rental supply, both of which support more reliable payment timing.”
Where August rent was paid on time the most — and least — often
States with the highest on-time payment rates
- Wyoming: 95.2%
- Utah: 92.8%
- Alaska: 91.2%
- New Hampshire: 90.9%
- Washington: 90.1%
States with the lowest on-time payment rates
- Delaware: 69.2%
- Mississippi: 72.0%
- West Virginia: 77.0%
- Illinois: 77.9%
- Tennessee: 78.7%
RentRedi Co-founder and CEO Ryan Barone told the Deseret News that Utah renters spend less than a quarter of their household income on rent.
Utah earnings outpacing higher rents
“With rent taking up a smaller share of a paycheck, Utah tenants have more room to absorb other costs and still pay on time,” Barone said, noting that they also rank second in median household income adjusted for cost of living.
“Several cities in Utah are running 40% higher than the typical U.S. metro,” he said, “so even though rents there run higher too, Utah renters are still spending only about 23% of income on rent, well under the 30% threshold economists use to flag a cost burden.”
The Salt Lake City metropolitan area was ranked the nation’s fourth-most affordable rental market in January 2025 by the online real estate brokerage Redfin, with renters earning nearly 9% more than they needed to pay for the typical apartment.
Data supplied by RentRedi put median household income for the Salt Lake City-Murray metro area at more than $100,500; for the Provo-Orem-Lehi metro area, at just over $101,000; and for the Ogden metro area, at nearly $98,500, compared to more than $71,400 nationally.
Those Utah renters likely spend more rent than the $1,398 median payment for U.S. renters, the data showed, with the typical rent in the Salt Lake City area at $1,647; in the Provo-Orem area, $1,823; and in the Ogden area, $1,631.
Renters in Utah’s metro areas fell slightly short of the 92.8% statewide on-time payment rate, according to data shared by the company for the second quarter of 2026, with Salt Lake City-Murray at 92.58%; Provo-Orem-Lehi, at 90.82% and Ogden, at 89.96%.