The National Apartment Association updated its Dollar of Rent research and reported that 89 cents per dollar of rent goes to mortgage payments, operating expenses, property taxes, payroll, and capital reserves, with just the remainder left over. Among communities tracked in both 2024 and 2025, operating costs grew faster than property income, which the group says is squeezing already narrow margins.
Why it matters to multifamily marketers
Residents and reporters ask where their rent actually goes, and this breakdown gives marketers a clean, source backed way to answer in newsletters, renewal letters, and leasing talk tracks when explaining rent changes or new fees. Not a promise about any one community.