Apartment Rent Payments Fall for Third Straight Month

And the trend is likely to continue in September, forecasters warn, as states and FEMA try to roll out a program to partly restore unemployment benefits.

By Scott Graham | September 02, 2020 at 07:08 AM

Apartment rent payments continued their downward drift in August. But the industry’s eyes are focused on September, as states try to fill in the gap from expired unemployment benefits provided by the CARES Act.

The number of households paying rent through August 27 stood at 92.1%, down from 93.3% in July and 94.2% in June, according to the National Multifamily Housing Council’s Rent Payment Tracker. The rate was down 1.9 percentage points year-over-year from August 2019′s 94%.

August was the first month that unemployed Americans went without the extra $600 a week provided by the March 2020 CARES Act. President Trump has authorized states to disburse $300 a week from the Federal Emergency Management Agency and invited states to chip in another $100.

But as of August 31 only six states—Arizona, Louisiana, Missouri, Montana, Tennessee and Texas—are reported to have started delivering that assistance. Though more state are expected to come online soon, analytics company RealPage Inc., one of the data providers to the council, is already forecasting that more households will miss payments in September.

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NMHC president Doug Bibby said it’s important that Congress and the Administration come back to the bargaining table and pass comprehensive legislation addressing unemployment. “The industry remains encouraged by the degree residents have prioritized their housing obligations so far, but each passing day means more distress for individuals and families, and greater risk for the nation’s housing sector,†Bibby said in prepared remarks. “If policymakers want to prevent a health and economic crisis from quickly evolving into a housing crisis, they should act quickly to extend financial assistance to renters.â€

NMHC compiles information from five technology firms on 11.4 million units of professionally managed apartments across the country of varying size and rental prices.

RealPage says that its information shows that missed payments were most frequent in lower-priced Class C properties.

Among the country’s largest metros, payment rates were best in Salt Lake City, Tampa, Providence, Sacramento and Oakland, according to RealPage. More than 97% of renters in professionally managed properties paid their August rent in those locations.

The biggest year-over-year declines came in Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Milwaukee and New Orleans, according to RealPage.