Over the course of two years, Connecticut went from being ranked the worst state for renters to being in the top ten best, largely due to its emphasis on renters’ rights.
In 2024, Connecticut was ranked the worst state for renters, according to consumer review company Consumer Affairs, which operates the Journal of Consumer Research.
In the latest report, Connecticut is considered the seventh best state for renters.
The new rating came from a change in the report’s assessment, placing more value in tenant protections, according to Consumer Affair’s Rebecca Sowell.
“It paints a different picture that's a little bit more nuanced this year, because clearly Connecticut has its struggles with affordability and cost, but there are safeguards in place that will protect people,” Sowell said.
For this year’s ranking, Sowell said, the report changed the way it approached tenant protections. Connecticut’s jump up the list is due to the new assessment of tenant rights.
“It might seem kind of crazy to have a big spike, but if anything, I would say this shows that Connecticut does care for its renters, and we were able to kind of look a little bit deeper into meaningful protections,” Sowell said.
The tenants rights most valued in the report include enforcement of housing codes, limits on how landlords handle rent increases, caps for tenants fees and universal just cause eviction law.
The change in assessment led to some states moving drastically up and down in the rankings, but Sowell said the new system is more comprehensive and the list will even out in coming years.
“It made that big of an impact on Connecticut's ranking, I think shows that there is kind of more than meets the eye, than what we were able to capture in our previous reporting,” Sowell said.
Connecticut received a poor ranking for affordability and rental availability, but the quality of life and tenants’ rights rankings were high enough to secure a top spot.
Each state was ranked based on four categories: quality of life, tenant protections, affordability and rental availability.
The report relied largely on U.S. Census Bureau data and, to determine the most important renter rights, on data from the National Low Income Housing Coalition.
Eric Dunn, director of litigation at the National Housing Law Project, said in the report another way renters can protect themselves is to keep documentation of their interactions with landlords.
“A text or email trail (can be) the difference between a winnable dispute and a he-said-she-said,” said Branson. “Don’t assume that, one, there’s some kind of protection on the books, and, two, that it’s going to be honored and that you’re going to be able to enforce violations.”
