The New York metro area is home to highest potential returns on single-family rentals (SFR), according to a new data report from ATTOM.
The report analyzed single-family rental returns in 361 counties with sufficient rental and home-price data. The analysis encompassed median rents and median home prices collected from ATTOM’s property database and from publicly recorded sales deed data licensed by ATTOM.
ATTOM determined the counties with the highest potential annual gross rental yields on three-bedroom properties for 2025 are Long Island’s Suffolk County in the New York City metro area (18%), followed by Atlantic County, New Jersey, in the Atlantic City area (16.8%), Jefferson County, Alabama, in the Birmingham area (13.6%), Mobile County, Alabama (12.9%) and Ector County, Texas, in the Odessa area (12.5%).
Aside from Suffolk County, the highest potential annual three-bedroom gross rental yields in 2025 among counties with a population of at least 1 million are in Wayne County (Detroit), Michigan (10.9%); Cuyahoga County (Cleveland), Ohio (10.1%), Allegheny County (Pittsburgh), Pennsylvania (9.8%) and Cook County (Chicago), Illinois (9.2%).
ATTOM noted the potential annual three-bedroom gross rental yields for 2025 have gone down compared to 2024 in 57% of the counties analyzed in the report, most notably in Connecticut’s Litchfield County with a yield down from 17.1% in 2024 to 11.7% this year. The biggest decrease in potential annual gross rental yields from 2024 to 2025 among counties with a population of at least 1 million was in California’s Los Angeles County with a yield down from 7.1% in 2024 to 6.1% this year.
“The fallout from rising single-family home values is proving beneficial for long-time landlords, as increasing property prices drive rents higher. However, for new investors entering the rental market, conditions are becoming more challenging nationwide,” said Rob Barber, CEO at ATTOM. “Unless home prices stabilize or more properties become available for sale, this trend is likely to persist in the near future.”
