Rental Payments Decline Nationwide as Pandemic Continues

Rental payments nationwide have decreased since March, according to a rental trends report by Rentec Direct.

The trend isn’t surprising, as the national unemployment rate has increased almost 10 percent since this February, prior to the start of stay-at-home orders. As tenants struggle to pay their bills, rent is often the most expensive living expense with an average of at least 30 percent of a person’s income.

In July, landlords and property managers received 26 percent fewer rent payments than in March. The percentage of rent payments had steadily declined since March, and had dropped an additional two percent in the last month. The lower percentage of rental payments showed that the economic burden from the COVID-19 pandemic is worse than back in March. April showed the steepest drop in rental payments at 17 percent, with the rate of rental payments slowly declining since. May saw a two percent decrease from the previous month, with an additional 5 percent decrease in June.

In addition, the COVID-19 pandemic has affected the methods tenants use to pay rent. Payments received in cash or check were 1.6 percent less than online payments. Landlords and property managers showed an increased interest in using online payments in March 2020, when the mandated stay-at-home orders began in multiple states. The amount of cash or check payments versus online rental payments decreased 1.5 percent in April, stayed steady in May with no difference between the two methods, then showed in favor of online payments again in June with 1.4 percent more likely to pay rent online.

Since then, the interest in online payments has dropped by 11 percent, but remains a method a tenant would be more likely to use in paying rent. Roughly 124 property managers submit applications to receive online payments each month. The desire to use an online payment method was increasing slightly at the beginning of the year, with a small increase from January to February. However, the interest spiked drastically in March once stay-at-home orders were mandated, before falling steadily in April and May. June saw a slight uptick in interest for online rental payments.