May Rents Hit 90.8% Collected!

Three weeks into May, 90.8 percent of rental households have made full or partial rent payments, according to just-released data from the National Multifamily Housing Council.

By comparison, by the same time last month, 89.2 percent of renters had made a payment, while 93 percent of rental households had made a payment through the same time period last year.

The data comes a day after the U.S. Department of Labor released the latest weekly unemployment numbers, which showed that 2.4 million Americans filed for unemployment in the week ending May 16, bringing the total number of jobs lost over the last nine weeks to more than 38 million. Last week’s report from NMHC showed that 87.7 percent of renters had paid full or partial rent by May 13.

The data was pulled from 11.4 million professionally managed rental units across the country that vary widely by size, type, and average rental price. This week’s report is the latest in the series from the NMHC Rent Payment Tracker, an initiative that partners with industry firms Entrata, MRI Software, RealPage, ResMan, and Yardi.

While the numbers are encouraging, NMHC has previously cautioned that the tracker does not capture rent payments for smaller landlords or for affordable and subsidized properties.

Earlier this week, a New York City-based landlord group representing close to 4,000 owners of rent-stabilized properties, said in a press release that residential rental income was down more than 20 percent at its members’ properties, while commercial tenants at the same properties had paid just 34 percent of rental payments.

NMHC and other industry groups have continued to push for more rent relief legislation from Congress. Last week, a report from data and analytics firm Amherst found that more than 60 percent of households in the U.S. have not received any housing relief from the government. Relief needed for renters in the U.S. has been estimated to be between $76 billion and $100 billion.

“Each week we see new evidence that Americans are prioritizing rent and that the work apartment firms did to create flexible payment plans is paying dividends,” said NMHC President Doug Bibby in prepared remarks.

“However, the hardships caused by the outbreak are not ending anytime soon. Accordingly, it is critical that lawmakers come together to support America’s 43 million renter households with a national rental assistance fund as was included in the House-passed HEROES Act, and to protect our housing providers with expanded mortgage forbearance.”

Source: multihousingnews.com