Survey Methodology
The 2024 NMHC/Grace Hill Renter Preferences Survey was conducted from June 13 to July 12, 2023. During this time period, Grace Hill distributed nearly one million surveys to residents of select professionally managed rental housing communities across the U.S. This database of residents was compiled by Grace Hill with the support of a group of leading rental property managers. Offered as an incentive for renters to fill out the survey, Grace Hill randomly selected one participant to win a $500 gift card.
A total of 172,703 individuals responded to the survey. 94 percent of respondents are apartment residents, 4 percent live in townhomes, and 2 percent live in detached single-family rental homes. All respondents received the respondent demographic questions and the remaining sections were randomly split among respondents to minimize survey fatigue. The number of respondents is reported for each question.
Report Deliverables
The survey report and corresponding Excel sheet, online results, or any other deliverables available to users contain only aggregate summary statistics, such that individual respondents cannot be identified.
Results from 2024 and 2022 are presented in the report for questions that were asked in both survey rounds. Some answer options were expanded or modified in the 2024 survey; in cases where that answer was not an option in the prior survey, a “--” is reported. A “--” is also reported if there were no responses to the answer option in the prior year.
Market reports were generated for metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs) - defined by the U.S. Office of Management and Budget - with at least 150 responses from 5 or more properties. 77 MSAs met this threshold and are available individually or as part of the full report set.