The National Multifamily Housing Council (NMHC)’s Rent
Payment Tracker found 90 percent of apartment households made a full or partial
rent payment by August 20 in its survey of 11.4 million units of professionally
managed apartment units across the country.
This is a 2.1-percentage point, or 237,056 -household
decrease from the share who paid rent through August 20, 2019 and compares to
91.3 percent that had paid by July 20, 2020. These data encompass a wide
variety of market-rate rental properties across the United States, which can
vary by size, type and average rental price.
“Lawmakers in Congress and the Administration need to come
back to the table and work together on comprehensive legislation that protects
and supports tens of millions of American renters by extending unemployment
benefits and providing desperately needed rental assistance,” said Doug Bibby,
NMHC President.
“The industry remains encouraged by the degree residents
have prioritized their housing obligations so far, but each passing day means
more distress for individuals and families, and greater risk for the nation’s
housing sector. If policymakers want to prevent a health and economic crisis
from quickly evolving into a housing crisis, they should act quickly to extend
financial assistance to renters.”
In New York City, the vacancy rate for rent regulated
apartments now stands at 10.78 percent, according to The Community Housing
Improvement Program (CHIP), which represents the owners of 400,000 rent
stabilized apartments.
Jay Martin, Executive Director of CHIP, said, “The lack of
action on robust relief for renters will likely cost hundreds of small property
owners their livelihoods and thousands of renters their homes.”
