【World Property Journal】Missed Residential Rents Balloon in U.S. as Government Aid Soon Expires

Zillow is reporting that as 32 million Americans received unemployment benefits in late June 2020, more renters were late on their July 2020 payments than any other time during the coronavirus pandemic. Boosted government unemployment aid has expired, meaning those numbers are likely to rise even further in coming months.

Those missed rent payments could cause a wave of housing insecurity and have the potential for deep impacts not only for renters, but also for rental owners who owe common costs of property ownership and other workers in the industry.

During the first week of July, 22.6% of U.S. apartment households did not pay any rent. That's up from 19.2% from the first week of June and higher than in any month since at least March. By July 13, the share of renters that hadn't yet paid fell to 12.4%, 2.5 percentage points higher than the same period last year. Two million people continue to apply for unemployment benefits weekly and recent estimates show half of all U.S. households have lost income during the pandemic making it likely that government aid has played a crucial role in preventing the share of unpaid rent from ballooning even higher.
 

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