80% of Apartment Renters Paid Up In Early May

The 80% who paid by May 6 is a 0.1 percentage point decrease from the share who paid rent through May 6, 2020.

Eighty percent of apartment households made a full or partial rent payment by May 6, according to The National Multifamily Housing Council’s Rent Payment Tracker

The 80% who paid by May 6 is a 0.1 percentage point decrease from the share who paid rent through May 6, 2020. Through May 6, 2019, 81.7% had been paid.

“This month’s findings are part of what seems to be an increasingly clear pattern of economic recovery and strong demand for multifamily housing,” said Doug Bibby, NMHC president, in a prepared statement. “With more and more vaccines being administered, job creation on the rise and tens of billions in rental assistance being distributed to residents and housing providers in need, the outlook for the industry is a positive one.”

Other reports also show a rebound in the apartment industry. CBRE, for example, says that the US multifamily market stabilized a quarter earlier than expected in Q1 2021.

While vacancy rose by 20 basis points to 4.7% in the quarter, the average rent rose 0.4%. That was the first quarterly rent increase since the pandemic began. Still, the average rent was down 4.2%, and vacancy was up 50 basis points compared to a year ago.

The almost $50 billion in rental assistance allocated by the federal government needs to be efficiently distributed to be fully effective, however, Bibby said, who also called for an end to the eviction moratorium. 

“With rental assistance being disbursed, the economy on the way back and a broad return to normalcy underway across the country, it is past time for the federal eviction moratorium, a policy that was intended to be an emergency effort, to be concluded,” he said.

There have been widespread complaints that the federal rental assistance program has been sluggish in disbursing its funds. 

The Rent Payment Tracker surveys 11.7 million units of professionally managed apartment units across the United States, varying by size, type and average rental price. The NMHC Rent Payment is intended to serve as an indicator of resident financial challenges. It is also designed to track the recovery and the effectiveness of government stimulus and subsidies.