Americans perceive renters as less interested and less vested in their residences than owner-occupants. These perceptions stem in part from historical and current day promotion of the homeownership tenure norm. Although this has achieved its main goal, that of reinforcing owner occupancy as the societal tenure norm, it has also encouraged bias against renters and non-owner occupied dwellings. Maintenance of rental units is ultimately the responsibility of the owner. One might expect landlords to exert approximately the same amount of upkeep effort towards their rental property investments as they would towards their own residence. Maintaining the homes in good condition would protect their investment from devaluation. The first objective was to determine what pre-established perception, if any, Corvallis residents have of non-owner occupied residences. The second was to identify relationships between the selected characteristics and the exterior condition of single-family residences. The characteristics analyzed were: 1) Tenure (of the residents), 2) Age of the structure, 3) Condition of neighboring residences (Neighborhood Condition), 4) A Maintenance Management Factor and, 5) Proximity of Owner (to the residence). The final objective was to ascertain if renter occupied homes were more likely than owner occupied to possess those predisposing characteristics that make a dwelling more susceptible to decline. Three residential dwelling characteristics were identified as having an influence on the exterior condition of single-family homes in Corvallis. These were Tenure, Age of Structure and Neighborhood Condition. Non-owner occupied residences, older dwellings, and units in poor condition neighborhoods tended to have poor quality exterior conditions themselves. Of the three the only characteristic predisposed to decline linked to rental residences was Tenure. Although the chi-square and ANOVA test results relate neighborhood condition and age to exterior conditions of dwellings, the results also suggest that a rental home is not more likely than an owner occupied home to be older or to be located in a poor condition neighborhood Identification of residential characteristics that predispose a dwelling to decline could benefit renters and owners of rental properties. The outcomes could assist in the development of policies that provide financial support and/or education to owners of homes that possess those characteristics. Renters would benefit if the policies would encourage improved quality of rental dwellings. / Graduation date: 2002