by Calculated Risk on 8/17/2020 12:43:00 PM

From the NMHC: NMHC Rent Payment Tracker Finds 86.9 Percent of Apartment Households Paid Rent as of August 13

The National Multifamily Housing Council (NMHC)’s Rent Payment Tracker found 86.9 percent of apartment households made a full or partial rent payment by August 13 in its survey of 11.4 million units of professionally managed apartment units across the country.

This is a 2.0-percentage point, or 222,543 -household decrease from the share who paid rent through August 13, 2019 and compares to 87.6 percent that had paid by July 13, 2020. These data encompass a wide variety of market-rate rental properties across the United States, which can vary by size, type and average rental price.

“At a time when the country is continuing to face a pandemic and suffering from a recession, lawmakers in Congress and the Trump administration must come back to the table and work together on passing comprehensive legislation in the next COVID-19 relief package,” said Doug Bibby, NMHC President.

“While NMHC’s Rent Payment Tracker continues to show that many residents have continued to meet their monthly housing obligations, that is due in large part to the relief enacted under the CARES Act. With that support now having expired more than two weeks ago, households across the country are grappling with even greater financial distress. We strongly urge Congressional leaders and administration officials to extend critical unemployment benefits and create a rental assistance fund so that America’s tens of millions of apartment residents can remain safely and securely housed.”
emphasis added

CR Note: This is mostly for large, professionally managed properties.  It appears fewer people are paying their rent this year compared to last year (down 2.0 percentage points from a year ago).   But this hasn't fallen off a cliff - yet. 

People were still receiving the extra unemployment benefits for most of July, and were able to make their August rent payment.  Without more disaster relief, I expect more people will miss their September rent payment.