The latest apartment rent payment data from the Washington, D.C.-based National Multifamily Housing Council offers “evidence of a recovering economy,” the trade group’s president said.
About 79.8% of apartment renters in the United States made full or partial rent payments as of April 6, according to data released by the organization. That represents a 1.9% increase over the number of renters who paid rent through April 6, 2020, but is slightly below the 82.9% of renters who had made either full or partial rent payments by April 6, 2019, before the pandemic.
Still, the figure is indicative of an economy and multifamily market that is on the mend, perhaps in large part because of the federal government’s approval of more financial aid to renters.
“While we are not out of the woods yet, there is light at the end of the tunnel,” Doug Bibby, president of the National Multifamily Housing Council, said in a statement. “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.”
Apartment rent payments have mostly hovered around 75% since March 2020, when the pandemic began, according to previously released rental payment data. So far, the worst month for rental payments was December, when about 75.4% of renters made payments toward their rent by the 6th of the month. That compares to the best month for rental payments, which came in June, when roughly 80.8% of apartment dwellers made full or partial payments, according to the data.
The National Multifamily Housing Council represents 11.3 million professionally managed multifamily units in the United States. Throughout much of the pandemic, the organization has advocated for additional government support and stimulus payments that could help more residents pay their rent.
Bibby also called for an end to the existing eviction moratorium, which expires on June 30. He joins other apartment groups, including the National Apartment Association, in opposing the moratoriums.
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