Apartment Rent Payments Down Nearly 30 Percent Across U.S.: Report
By Tom Acitelli August 18, 2020 1:36 pm
reprints
The number of rent payments received by apartment managers and landlords nationwide from August 1 to 10 was 29 percent lower than during the same period in March, before the COVID-19 pandemic.
That is according to an analysis of in-house data from property management firm Rentec Direct. The company pulled information from its database, which it says includes 620,000 domestic rental properties.
Along with the 29 percent drop in early August compared with early March, the analysis also found that the number of rent payments received by landlords and managers has declined steadily throughout the pandemic. Rentec Direct attributed the slide to not only the pandemic’s deep economic impact but to eviction moratoriums.
“Our data shows a consistent downward trend in the number of rent payments received by property managers and landlords, dropping more than 12 percent in the last five months alone,” Nathan Miller, Oregon-based Rentec Direct’s president, said. “Many tenants are relying on various temporary regulations that protect them as widespread unemployment and income loss impact the nation, and this means fewer renters are paying their rent.”
Such local and state moratoriums are due to expire over the coming months. California, for instance, will begin allowing nonemergency eviction proceedings on September 1, and New York until October 1.
The analysis from Rentec Direct, which garners business from facilitating online payments, said that such rent payments declined significantly for the first time during the pandemic. They were down 11 percent during the first 10 days of August compared with the same period in March.
