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How many landlords lose money? US landlord statistics from IRS tax data

By Cedrick Reese, Property Rental Calculator

47.0% of US tax returns that reported rental real estate for 2023 showed a net rental loss: 4,336,173 out of 9,222,639 returns, according to IRS Statistics of Income data for tax year 2023. That's a tax loss after depreciation, which isn't the same thing as losing cash, and the gap between the two is most of the story.

Last updated September 25, 2026 · Data: IRS SOI, tax year 2023 (returns filed in 2024) · Download this data (CSV)

Key findings

• 9,222,639 individual tax returns reported income or loss from rental real estate for 2023. That's 5.74% of the 160.6 million individual returns filed.
• 47.0% of those returns (4,336,173) showed a net rental loss. The other 4,886,466 showed a profit.
• Returns with a rental profit netted $20,582 on average. Returns with a rental loss averaged a $18,147 loss.
• Everyone combined, rental real estate netted $21.88 billion on $436.66 billion of rent received, about 5.0% of every rent dollar.
• Depreciation, a deduction that costs no cash in the year it's claimed, came to $113.88 billion. Add it back and net rental income was $135.77 billion.

How many landlords there are

The best official count of individual landlords in the US comes from tax returns. For tax year 2023, 9,222,639 returns reported income or loss from rental real estate on Schedule E, the form landlords use to report rent and expenses. That's 5.74% of all individual returns.

Two things to keep in mind. First, this counts returns, not people: a married couple filing jointly who own a rental together is one return. Second, it only covers property reported on a personal return. Landlords who own rentals only through a partnership, S corporation, or C corporation don't show up in this number. So it's a count of individual landlords, not of every rental owner in the country.

You'll see other figures floating around, some attributed to the wrong agency and some years out of date. This number comes straight from the IRS table, and it matches a second IRS publication exactly (see methodology).

How many report a loss, and why that isn't losing money

Of the returns with rental real estate, 4,336,173 reported a net rental loss for 2023. That's 47.0%, close to half. The remaining 4,886,466 reported a profit.

A rental "loss" on a tax return usually isn't a landlord bleeding cash. The biggest reason is depreciation: every year you can deduct part of what the building cost, even though you didn't spend any money on it that year. Across all returns, depreciation on rental real estate came to $113.88 billion for 2023, claimed on 7,243,667 returns. That single deduction is bigger than the entire net rental income of $21.88 billion.

Add depreciation back and aggregate net rental income jumps to $135.77 billion. That still isn't cash flow, since mortgage principal payments aren't deductible and aren't in these figures, but it shows why "half of landlords lose money" and "half of landlords report a tax loss" are different claims. If you want to see how depreciation turns a positive cash month into a tax loss on your own numbers, run them through the rental property depreciation calculator.

What landlords actually net

Returns that showed a rental profit netted $20,582 on average for 2023, for a combined $100.57 billion. Returns that showed a loss averaged a $18,147 loss, for a combined $78.69 billion.

Put everyone together and the average return with rental real estate netted $2,373 for the year, after depreciation. These are averages, not medians, so a smaller number of large owners pulls them up; the typical small landlord's result is probably lower. For what a specific property might produce, the rental cash flow guide walks through the math deal by deal.

Where each rent dollar goes

Landlords reported $436.66 billion in rent received for 2023 on 8,914,988 returns, and claimed $414.78 billion in rental expenses, including depreciation. Here's how each $100 of rent split out:

Depreciation alone ate 26.1% of every rent dollar on paper. That's why the depreciation line matters so much at tax time, and why a property can cash-flow every month and still show a loss on Schedule E. Our Schedule E guide covers how each line works.

Losses the passive-loss rules hold back

Showing a loss and deducting it are two different things. Most rental activity is passive, so a loss can only offset other income within limits. For 2023, 3,925,866 returns deducted a rental real estate loss after those limits were applied. Losses that couldn't be used carry forward to later years instead of disappearing. To see how the special allowance for active participants phases out at your income level, try the rental property income tax calculator.

Full data table

Each row has its own link, so you can cite a single figure (for example, us-landlord-statistics.html#F8). Money amounts from the IRS are published in thousands of dollars and shown here in billions. Download this data (CSV).

*Medium confidence: read from the Schedule E line 22 position in the Pub 4801 text; unlike the other Pub 4801 figures, it isn't confirmed by a published total.

Methodology and limitations

Where the numbers come from. Every figure comes from two IRS Statistics of Income publications for tax year 2023, the most recent year published: Table 1.4 (sources of income on all individual returns) and Publication 4801 (line item estimates, Schedule E section, June 2026 revision). Table 1.4 reports rental real estate separately from royalties and farm rent, so the rental counts here don't mix in oil, gas or mineral royalty income.

How the computed figures were made. The count of returns with rental real estate is returns with a net rental profit plus returns with a net rental loss (F2 + F4). Shares and averages divide the published counts and amounts; the formula for each is in the data table. All math was run in code at full precision and rounded only for display.

How it was checked. The two IRS publications are independent tabulations, and they agree: the Table 1.4 count of returns with rental income or loss matches the Pub 4801 Schedule E line 21 rental count exactly, and the Table 1.4 net amount matches line 21 to the thousand dollars. Pub 4801's rental expense and depreciation figures, added to its royalty columns, match its own published totals. The figures were read from the original IRS files (the Table 1.4 spreadsheet and the Pub 4801 PDF) as downloaded from irs.gov.

Limitations. All IRS figures are estimates based on a sample of returns. Counts are returns, not people or properties. A "loss" is a tax loss after depreciation and other deductions, and the loss figures include losses that weren't deductible that year. Averages are means and are skewed by large owners. Rental real estate owned through partnerships, S corporations or C corporations isn't included in these individual-return counts.

Wondering whether owning a rental is worth it at all? Is being a landlord worth it? weighs the tradeoffs, and the Rental Property Calculator runs the numbers on a specific deal.