Sign up for our daily briefing
Make your busy days simpler with Axios AM/PM. Catch up on what's new and why it matters in just 5 minutes.
Catch up on coronavirus stories and special reports, curated by Mike Allen everyday
Catch up on coronavirus stories and special reports, curated by Mike Allen everyday
Denver news in your inbox
Catch up on the most important stories affecting your hometown with Axios Denver
Des Moines news in your inbox
Catch up on the most important stories affecting your hometown with Axios Des Moines
Minneapolis-St. Paul news in your inbox
Catch up on the most important stories affecting your hometown with Axios Twin Cities
Tampa Bay news in your inbox
Catch up on the most important stories affecting your hometown with Axios Tampa Bay
Charlotte news in your inbox
Catch up on the most important stories affecting your hometown with Axios Charlotte
Photo: DeAgostini/Getty Images
Amid the coronavirus pandemic, nearly one-third of apartment renters in the U.S. didn't make their April payments, according to numbers from the National Multifamily Housing Council and a group of real-estate data providers.
By the numbers: 69% of tenants paid some rent between April 1-5, down from 81% in the first week of March and 82% in April 2019.
The data comes from 13.4 million apartments analyzed by several real-estate data firms. People who only paid a portion of their rent were included among those who paid. The data does not count single-family homes, and the apartments tallied exclude public housing and subsidized affordable housing.
Why it matters: The numbers shed new light on the economic hardships the COVID-19 outbreak has brought on Americans. The due dates for most rental payments came the same week as a record 6.6 million people filed for unemployment — a number that eclipsed the 3.3 million who filed the preceding week.
The impact: Some renters will be temporarily protected from eviction for unpaid rent by a collection of federal and local laws.
- But, but, but: Many real-estate analysts speculate that unpaid rent could snowball to cause commercial mortgage defaults, terminating investments in bonds backed by those mortgages, the Wall Street Journal notes.