There has been a steady increase in the number of eviction filings across the country since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, with Minneapolis topping the list with a staggering 65 percent increase since 2019, as reported by the Eviction Lab.
According to data tracked by the research center based in Princeton University, which created the first nationwide database of evictions, a total of 1,076,396 evictions were filed over the last 12 months by landlords in the ten states and 34 cities analyzed by the Eviction Lab. Some 69,623 of these evictions were filed over the last month alone.
After dropping during the pandemic, the number of eviction filings started to rise sharply in 2022, as home prices skyrocketed and rents climbed just as fast. The median rent for all bedrooms and all property types in the country is $2,000, according to real estate site Zillow’s latest data.
Researchers at the Eviction Lab have been tracking weekly eviction filings since March 2020 to monitor the impact of the pandemic on the rental market. The ten states tracked by the center are Connecticut, Delaware, Indiana, Minnesota, Missouri, New Mexico, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Virginia and Wisconsin.
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Among these, Minnesota experienced the biggest surge in the number of eviction filings last year, a 44 percent increase compared to an average year before the pandemic. There were a total of 24,211 eviction filings in the state in 2023, and 1,982 in December alone. The second biggest surge was in Rhode Island, which saw a 9 percent increase in eviction filings compared to pre-pandemic times last year for a total of 8,442 in 2023.
Other statewide jumps in eviction filings were reported in Connecticut, which saw a 5 percent increase in 2023 compared to an average pre-pandemic year, and Wisconsin, which reported a 1 percent increase. Connecticut had a total of 20,622 eviction filings last year, while Wisconsin had 28,042.
Overall, the highest number of eviction filings was reported in Virginia, which recorded a total of 136,405, though the state registered an overall drop of 16 percent compared to an average pre-pandemic year. Pennsylvania followed suit with 114,514 eviction filings in 2023, with no change compared to pre-pandemic times.
Newsweek contacted the Eviction Lab for comment by email on Wednesday.
Among the 34 cities tracked by the Eviction Lab, the highest increases in filings compared to pre-pandemic times were reported in the Minneapolis metro area, Minnesota (65 percent) and Las Vegas, Nevada (59 percent).
Other cities which saw an increase in eviction filings include Austin (2 percent), Fort Worth (22 percent), Houston (44 percent) and Memphis (9 percent) in Texas, Bridgeport (12 percent) and Hartford (10 percent) in Connecticut, Columbus, Ohio (30 percent), Gainesville (50 percent), Jacksonville (27 percent), Miami (13 percent) and Tampa (17 percent) in Florida, Greenville in South Carolina (4 percent), Milwaukee in Wisconsin (7 percent), Nashville in Tennessee (27 percent), Phoenix in Arizona (30 percent), Providence in Rhode Island (5 percent) and St Louis in Missouri (4 percent).
Data for Gainesville, Miami and Tampa were updated to July 1, 2023, while numbers for Las Vegas and Jacksonville were updated to December 1, 2023.
There are big gender, racial, and ethnic disparities among those who received eviction notices last year. According to the Eviction Lab, 59 percent of people facing eviction last year were women. Among those, there was a disproportionate number of Black and Latinx women.
Uncommon Knowledge
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