More apartment renters paid their rent in May than in April, according to early collection data from the National Multifamily Housing Council.
As of May 6, 80.2% of apartment households paid all or some of their rent for the month, according to the NMHC Rent Payment Tracker. The organization based its conclusion on a survey of 11.4 million units of market-rate apartments nationwide.
The May survey represents a 1.5% drop compared with the same period as last year, but is higher than the 78% of market-rate rents who had paid by April 6.
“Despite the fact that over 20 million people lost their jobs in April, for the second month in a row, we are seeing evidence that apartment renters who can pay rent are stepping up and doing so,” NMHC President Doug Bibby said in a statement.
Bibby added that the NMHC expects May payment patterns to largely mirror April, when the payment rate increased throughout the month as renters obtained financial assistance.
In April 2019, 97.7% of renters surveyed managed to pay their rent by the end of the month. A year later, according to NMHC, 94.6% of renters surveyed did so.
The NMHC Rent Payment Tracker, which is updated weekly, draws its data from five specialists in the field: Entrata, MRI Software, RealPage, ResMan and Yardi Systems. The tracker’s percentages are based on total occupied units, excluding vacant units. Non-market units, including student housing, privatized military housing and subsidized affordable apartments, aren't part of the survey.
A separate survey released on Thursday by Apartment List, which includes the payment patterns of both homeowners and renters, paints a slightly worse picture. As of the first week of May, only 78% of both groups combined had made either a full or partial payment, compared with 88% during the first week of April.
Thirty-three percent of renters and 30% of homeowners haven't yet made a full May payment, the survey found, which is up from 25% and 23% at this time in April, respectively.
On the other hand, 7% of mortgage loans are now in forbearance, and 10% of renters surveyed said that their landlord or property manager lowered their May rent, according to Apartment List. Among those who haven't paid their May rent, 40% say they have agreed to terms for reduced or deferred rent with their landlord.
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