The National Multifamily Housing Council (NMHC)’s Rent Payment Tracker found 79.8 percent of apartment households made a full or partial rent payment by April 6 in its survey of 11.6 million units of professionally managed apartment units across the country. This marks one year of tracking rent payment data following the onset of the pandemic.
This is a 1.9 percentage point increase from the share who paid rent through April 6, 2020 and compares to 82.9 percent who had paid by April 6, 2019. This data encompasses a wide variety of market-rate rental properties across the United States, which can vary by size, type and average rental price.
“This month’s data is more evidence of a recovering economy and the resilience of the multifamily industry,” said Doug Bibby, NMHC President. “While we are not out of the woods yet, there is light at the end of the tunnel. The recently passed American Rescue Plan included $26 billion in rental assistance as well as billions more of housing resources that will prove critical to keeping families safely and securely housed and the nation’s rental housing sector stable.
“As we look forward to growing housing demand and a return to normalcy, it is imperative that temporary policies put in place in response to the pandemic are carefully considered. Specifically, the current extension of the national eviction moratorium should be the last. Moratoriums do not address the underlying financial stress of apartment residents; instead, they force households to accumulate insurmountable levels of debt.
“The industry and its residents have weathered the last year with creativity, compassion and dedication. Now is the time for lawmakers to move ahead with policies aimed at solving the housing affordability challenges that predated the pandemic.”
NMHC also reported that 95.9 percent of renters made a full or partial rent payment by the end of March 2021. This was up from the 80.4 percent who had made a full or partial rent payment by March 6.
