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PHILADELPHIA—You see that rental listing that welcomes pets? If you blink, you might miss it.
Nationwide, pet-friendly rental listings draw more attention and lease faster than ones that aren’t, according to Zillow’s analysis of more than 11 million rental listings on its platform last year. Landlords typically find tenants for them eight days faster.
In the Philadelphia metropolitan area, about three in five rental listings on Zillow last year were pet-friendly. And landlords also found tenants for these homes faster—by a median of four days.
Households that can’t afford to buy homes are renting longer, and renters are older than they used to be as people start families later in life. So they’re more likely to have pets. According to Zillow, 58 percent of renters have a pet, up from 46 percent in 2019.
And pet parents prioritize the needs of their furry children, even putting them up in luxury pet hotels when they need to be away from home.
In Philadelphia, an apartment construction boom in the last few years means landlords are dealing with a glut of rentals. They have to find ways to attract renters who have more options than they’ve had in decades.
And that can mean welcoming or even catering to their pets. In the city, new apartment buildings have popped up with dog runs and parks and pet spas.
“Allowing pets can be a strategic edge for landlords competing to fill units,” Emily McDonald, a rental trends expert for Zillow, said in a statement. “Today’s renters are more established and more likely to have a pet, and we clearly see that pet-friendly rentals attract more interest on Zillow.”
Allowing pets can give landlords even more of an edge in certain places.
For example, in the New York City metro area, where just over half of rentals were pet friendly, these homes typically rented 26 days faster than rentals that weren’t pet friendly, according to Zillow. That’s the biggest advantage among the major markets.
Copyright 2025 The Philadelphia Inquirer, LLC. Visit at inquirer.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
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