Additional Unemployment Payments Are Done, Missed Rent Payments Are Just Getting Started

Even as unemployment has soared over the past few months, rent payments remained relatively steady due in no small part to the $600 weekly payments in federal unemployment benefits. Now that the extra $600 per week in benefits has ended and negotiations for an extension remain mired in Congress, the multifamily sector may well see an impact. 

The first two weeks of July saw an increase in missed rent payments, up to 12.4%, according to online real estate database Zillow. The missed payment rate was 9.9% at the same time in 2019. During the first week of July, 22.6% of U.S. apartment households didn’t pay any rent, up from 19.2% from the first week of June and the highest point since March of this year.