National renter satisfaction has leveled out this year. This past quarter, 78.5% of residents reported “Good” or “Excellent” satisfaction with their overall renting experience, which is a slight decrease from the prior quarter. This quarter’s decrease breaks the upward trend that began in the last quarter of 2017.
Atlanta, Washington, D.C., and Denver all saw a year-over-year decrease in resident satisfaction. Boston still has the highest overall satisfaction of the major markets with 83.8%, followed by New York with 83.5% of residents satisfied with their living experience. New York had the highest increase from this time last year with a 2.3 percentage point change, followed by Los Angeles and Miami with 2.0 and 1.9 percentage point increases, respectively.
All Major Markets Increase in Resident Value for Amount Paid
As it has for nearly the last two years, national value for amount paid continues to climb this quarter. Up from 60.8% last quarter, 61.4% of residents are satisfied with the value received for their rent this quarter. For three consecutive quarters, every major market has seen an increase in value for amount paid. Chicago is up 6.1 percentage points from this time last year, and both New York and San Francisco scores are up 4.3 percentage points as well. Atlanta continues to come first in value for amount paid with 67.2% of residents satisfied with the value they receive for their rent.
Boston Leads Major Markets for Renewal Intentions
This quarter, national resident renewal intentions have continued their year long increase, with 58.1% of residents indicating they were likely to renew their current lease. All major markets saw a year-over-year increase in resident renewal intentions. Of the major markets, Los Angeles had the highest year-over-year increase with an 8.3 percentage point increase from this time last year. Boston continues to have the highest renewal intention level with 65.6% of residents indicating they are likely to renew their lease.
Los Angeles’ overall satisfaction, value for amount paid, and renewal intentions are all up year over year this quarter, and renewal intentions have been rising steadily over the past few years. According to RentCafe, the average rent in the LA market is up 5% year over year.
In addition, affordable housing in the city is hard to find. Approximately 60% of residents in Los Angeles are spending more than 30% of their income on rent, which classifies them as “rent-burdened.” These rising scores, in addition to the rising rents in the market, sound counterintuitive, but it makes more sense upon considering the culture of Los Angeles. People work very hard to be able to live in the city, and once they find both an apartment they can afford and also like, they are unlikely to want to move because it is unlikely they will be able to find a similar apartment elsewhere in the city that they can still afford.
Customer Service Has a Growing Impact on Resident Move-Outs
There are any number of reasons a resident may decide to move out of their apartment. Some can be controlled or affected by property management, and others are completely out of their hands. Nationally, there are four primary factors that residents cited this quarter among their reasons for moving out.
The most frequently selected factor is rent increase followed by job relocation, community management/customer service, and space needs. Job relocation is entirely out of the hands of the community team, and rent increases often are as well. Customer service, however, is entirely within the control of the community management team to improve. This past quarter, 20% of residents indicated one of the reasons they decided to move out was the customer service of the management team.
Upon examining these move-out factors over time, it is clear that the impact of management customer service has been on the rise. Even since the beginning of this year, the share of residents citing customer service as an important factor has risen 5 percentage points. Customer service has a strong impact on residents’ overall satisfaction, and these results show it also has a growing impact on why residents decide to move out. This is the first quarter customer service has beat out space needs as the third most selected move-out factor. As customer service becomes increasingly important to the resident experience, community teams need to ensure they deliver top-notch service to prevent their residents from moving out.
