NMHC Rent Payment Tracker

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NMHC Rent Payment Tracker Finds 86.2 Percent of Apartment Households Paid Rent as of September 13

The National Multifamily Housing Council (NMHC)’s Rent Payment Tracker found 86.2 percent of apartment households made a full or partial rent payment by September 13 in its survey of 11.4 million units of professionally managed apartment units across the country.

This is a 2.4-percentage point, or 279,457-household decrease from the share who paid rent through September 13, 2019 and compares to 86.9 percent that had paid by August 13, 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.

“While it remains clear that many apartment residents continue to prioritize their housing obligations and that apartment owners and operators remain committed to meeting them halfway with creative and nuanced approaches, the reality is that the second week of September figures shows ongoing deterioration of rent payment figures - representing hundreds of thousands of households who are increasingly at risk,” said Doug Bibby, NMHC President.

“This sadly comes as little surprise given that Congress and the Administration have failed to come back to the table and extend the critical protections that supported apartment residents and the nation’s consumer base during the initial months of the pandemic.

“Instead of being satisfied with a half-baked nationwide eviction moratorium which does nothing to deal with renters’ real underlying problem – financial distress – lawmakers should instead look to the successful model of the CARES Act and provide economic support to those who need it most – the tens-of-millions that call an apartment home, revitalizing the recovery at the same time.”

Additional data for all rentals can be found in the Census Bureau's Household Pulse Survey >>>

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**Unit counts may change to reflect refinements to the methodologies and changing occupancy levels due to move in-move out activity.

* These figures are as initially reported; these are calendar days, so the specific day of the week can have an affect on these reported figures, as leasing offices can have reduced hours or be closed on those days, creating potential delays for payment processing.

Download the data from this chart.

Rent Payment Tracker Webinar Series

After release of the NMHC Rent Payment Tracker data, experts from the five leading property management data companies will provide additional detail on the week's data at a live webinar. Data will be released on Wednesdays, September 16, 23, and 30 at 10am ET.

Watch Recording of the Sept. 16 webinar.

View Past Webinars

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(Includes some regional data)

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REALPAGE

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Methodology

Data are collected weekly, with the first data collection happening the 1st through the 6th, and all data collections following will be cumulative, for example, the second collection will be the 1st through the 13th, the third will be the 1st through the 20th and so on for the remainder of each month.

When establishing the initial dates for the Rent Payment Tracker, NMHC wanted to track when rent was officially "late" and used the close of business on the 5th as that date. After consultation with property managers and data providers we were informed that a variety of dates are used to determine when rent is considered late, with some saying rent isn't late until as late as the 10th. In addition, those that use the 5th as their deadline reported that many people pay on the last day possible and that some of those payments aren't posted until the 6th. Based on this information, NMHC adjusted its methodology to make the close of business on the 6th the deadline for the first week. Moving this date also moved all other reporting dates by one day.

Partial payments are counted only once monthly, and the payment is captured in the first time period in which it occurs. For example, if an apartment household pays a quarter of their rent during the week of April 1, it would be captured in the first week. Subsequent payments that month would not be captured in the data to avoid double counting.

The percentages are based on the total occupied units, excluding vacant units, purpose-built student housing, privatized military housing, and subsidized affordable units. The number of total occupied units will change for many of the property management software (PMS) providers as new units are leased or units are vacated; as such, the total number of units in the dataset will fluctuate.

Release Date	Number of Units	NMHC Press Release
May 8, 2020	11.4 million	Press Release - May 8
May 15, 2020	11.4 million	Press Release - May 15
May 22, 2020	11.4 million	Press Release - May 22
May 29, 2020	11.4 million	None Issued
June 9, 2020	11.5 million	Press Release - June 9
June 16, 2020	11.4 million	Press Release - June 16
June 23, 2020	11.4 million	Press Release - June 23
June 30, 2020	11.1 million	None Issued
July 8, 2020	11.4 million	Press Release - July 8
July 15, 2020	11.4 million	Press Release - July 15
July 22, 2020	11.1 million	Press Release - July 22
July 29, 2020	11.4 million	None Issued
August 10, 2020	11.4 million	Press Release -August 10
August 17, 2020	11.4 million	Press Release -August 17
August 24, 2020	11.4 million	Press Release - August 24
August 31, 2020	11.4 million	None Issued
September 9, 2020	11.4 million	Press Release - September 9