Security Deposit Interest Laws by State

A 50-state comparison for residential rentals, with every state verified against official statutes — plus the layer most summaries miss: the cities and counties that impose their own deposit-interest rules, several of them in states whose statutes say nothing. Each figure comes from a statute verification pass against official sources — each row shows its own verified date, and each state links to its own page with the full citations and, where a published rate exists, the complete year-by-year rate table.

6 states always require interest on residential security deposits, 7 require it conditionally, and the rest require none — though 11 cities and counties impose their own local interest rules, several of them in states whose statutes are silent.

Work out a figure: the deposit interest calculator computes state and city interest from these verified rate tables, cross-checked against the official calculators where states publish one.

“No” hides a real distinction the state page keeps: some statutes are simply silent while others answer the question expressly without giving the tenant the interest, and one state repealed a duty that older summaries still quote. Conditional duties turn on unit counts, deposit sizes, lease lengths or the landlord's own choices — the state page carries the conditions, the rate mechanics, and every citation. Several cities and counties add their own interest rules on top of silent state law; those local pages are linked from their state's row.

No figure appears here unless it was verified against official state sources on the date shown — see how we verify.

City and county deposit-interest rules

Local interest ordinances exist independently of state law — a city can require interest in a state whose statute is silent. These pages carry each locality's verified answer, its rate table where one is published, and the citations.

Live local rules

• Berkeley, California — 0.9% for the annual payment made in December 2025, published by the Rent Stabilization Board; the rate for the December 2026 payment is due to be noticed on or before November 15, 2026 and has not been published yet.
• East Palo Alto, California — East Palo Alto requires deposit interest only for mobile home park space tenancies, and ordinary rentals in the city are owed none.
• Los Angeles, California — 3.03% for calendar year 2026, adopted by the Rent Adjustment Commission; a landlord may instead pay the interest the deposit actually earned, on producing bank statements.
• San Francisco, California — 4.2% for March 1, 2026 through February 28, 2027, set by the San Francisco Rent Board.
• Santa Cruz County, California — 0.02% simple interest for calendar year 2026, adopted by the Board of Supervisors in Resolution 243-2025 on December 16, 2025 and effective January 1, 2026.
• Watsonville, California — No rate has been published for 2025 or 2026.
• West Hollywood, California — 4.3% for calendar year 2025, announced by the Rent Stabilization Commission and payable or creditable to the tenant on or before January 31, 2026.
• Boulder, Colorado — 2.08% for leases entered during calendar year 2026, determined by the city manager and published by the city in December 2025.
• Chicago, Illinois — 0.01% for rental agreements made or renewed between January 1 and December 31, 2026, announced by the City Comptroller in a notice dated December 31, 2025.
• Portland, Oregon — Portland requires a landlord to hold a security deposit in a segregated account, and if that account earns interest the interest belongs to the tenant.
• Burlington, Vermont — Burlington requires a landlord to hold a security deposit in an interest-bearing account paying at least what a current Vermont bank passbook savings account pays, and the interest belongs to the tenant.

Former local rules (repealed or voided, still misquoted)

• Hayward, California — Hayward has not required interest on residential security deposits since 2019, when the city repealed the rent stabilization ordinance that carried the duty.
• Evanston, Illinois — Evanston repealed its deposit-interest rule effective January 1, 2025, and no Evanston ordinance now requires a landlord to pay interest on a residential security deposit.
• Barre, Vermont — Barre's security-deposit interest requirement was repealed effective November 1, 2020, and nothing has replaced it.
• Madison, Wisconsin — Madison's deposit-interest rule has had no force since December 21, 2011, even though it is still printed in the city's code today.

No local rule — despite claims in circulation

• Richmond, California — No Richmond ordinance requires a landlord to pay interest on a residential security deposit, and none requires a separate or interest-bearing account either.
• San Jose, California — No San Jose ordinance requires a landlord to pay interest on a residential security deposit, and the claim that the city requires five percent yearly deposit interest is false.
• Santa Monica, California — Santa Monica requires a landlord to put a security deposit in an interest-bearing account, but it does not require the landlord to hand that interest to the tenant.
• Albuquerque, New Mexico — No Albuquerque ordinance requires interest on residential security deposits — the city has no landlord-tenant chapter anywhere in its codified ordinances, so New Mexico's state rule is the whole answer inside city limits.
• Santa Fe, New Mexico — No Santa Fe ordinance requires interest on residential security deposits — the city code has no deposit-interest rule, so New Mexico's state statute is the whole answer inside city limits.
• Seattle, Washington — No Seattle ordinance requires a landlord to pay interest on a residential security deposit, and the widely repeated claim that Seattle requires it at a rate tied to the Consumer Price Index is false.

Local codes that defer to the state rule

• Montgomery County, Maryland — Montgomery County sets no security-deposit interest rule of its own: the county code has no deposit section, requires leases to handle deposits in accordance with state law, and leaves the rate and accrual entirely to Maryland Real Property § 8-203.
• Prince George's County, Maryland — Prince George's County sets no security-deposit interest rate of its own — its code entitles the tenant to interest and twice routes the rate to Maryland Real Property § 8-203, so the statewide rate applies.
• Minneapolis, Minnesota — Minneapolis sets no security-deposit interest rate of its own: the city's ordinance expressly leaves the deposit — interest included — to Minnesota Statutes § 504B.178, so a Minneapolis tenant is owed the state's one percent simple interest per year, paid when the tenancy ends.
• St. Paul, Minnesota — St. Paul sets no security-deposit interest rate of its own: Chapter 193 of the city's code states that any deposit is governed by Minnesota Statutes § 504B.178 together with the city's own section, so a St. Paul tenant is owed the state's one percent simple interest per year, paid when the tenancy ends.