April Sees 13% Drop in DC Area Tenants Paying Rent on Time

• April 9th 2020

by Nena Perry-Brown

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A day after the National Multifamily Housing Council (NMHC) debuted its Rent Payment Tracker, metro-level data is emerging on how rent-paying habits have changed in the wake of the COVID pandemic.

In the DC area, 71% of renter households had paid rent through the first five days of April, property management software provider RealPage has shared with UrbanTurf. This represents about a 13% drop from the payment rate seen during the same period last year (83.8%). The shift also nearly mirrors that seen nationwide, where 12% fewer renter households paid on time in April.

"The year-over-year drop in Washington, D.C. is similar to what has been seen in other notable gateway markets like San Francisco, Chicago, and Boston," RealPage market analyst Adam Couch told UrbanTurf. "However, one notable characteristic for Washington, D.C. is that it’s the nation’s capital. Government jobs tend to be the most stable employment category, and is the only job sector that added jobs in the past month."

This data covers the metropolitan statistical area, which spans from Jefferson County, West Virginia to Frederick, Maryland.

Thumbnail photo by Ted Eytan.

This article originally published at https://dc.urbanturf.com/articles/blog/april-13-drop-in-dc-area-tenants-paying-rent-on-time/16699.