Economist Mark Zandi: This Should Be the Last Eviction Ban Extension
By the end of June, the country should be in a better place, he said in a recent interview.
In a recent interview with CNBC, Moody’s Analytics Chief Economist Mark Zandi said the CDC’s recent extension of federal eviction moratoria will likely be the nation’s last, as the U.S. continues its slow climb out of the coronavirus slump.
In his remarks, Zandi noted that “the pandemic is still raging and the economy is weak,” with unemployment and underemployment very high, resulting in considerable financial stress, particularly for renters. But he pointed to the significant amount of renter assistance coming to both landlords and tenants in the form of the $25 billion federal package in December and an additional $21 billion in the American Rescue Plan. The three-month extension is “just enough time to get that money out and to get on the other side of the pandemic,” he said.
“By the end of June, when this particular extension expires, I think we’ll be in a pretty good place and the moratoriums could end at that point,” Zandi told CNBC.
When asked about the mounting costs of both owning and renting in many markets, Zandi described the issues as “temporary problems,” telling CNBC that the housing market and rental markets are “strong in most places” and reiterating the position that when rental assistance dollars start flowing to landlords and tenants, “we’ll be in a much better place.”
The most recent extension hasn’t been met with unilateral support, however. In a joint statement, both the National Apartment Association and the National Multifamily Housing Council expressed disappointment in the move, saying “[A]nother extension only serves to exacerbate the challenges facing the rental housing industry and does not address the underlying financial stress of apartment residents, instead forcing households to accumulate insurmountable levels of debt.” The groups also assert that moratoriums “do nothing” to deal with housing affordability challenges that existed pre-pandemic.
The groups cheered rental assistance allocations, however, noting that “direct financial assistance has been shown to be the most effective approach towards keeping apartment residents safely and securely housed and to preserving the stability of the rental housing industry.” NAA and NMHC will likely continue lobbying lawmakers at both the state and federal level to prioritize focus on distributing those funds.