The number of renters falling behind in payments due to the pandemic continues to grow slowly.
As of Oct 13, 86.8% of tenants in apartments owned by major landlords had paid their monthly rent, according to the National Multifamily Housing Council, which represents more than 11 million U.S. rental units.
While that's more than two percentage points less than the payment rate a year ago, it's still better than the worst-case scenarios that apartment owners were worrying about at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
"While the broader multifamily industry continues to show its resilience at a national level, other metrics in the industry are beginning to highlight the growing localized financial distress due to inaction by political leaders in Washington," housing council president Doug Bibby said in a statement.
The apartment industry trade group has been lobbying Washington for more pandemic stimulus money to help renters and Americans who have lost jobs.
The National Multifamily Housing Council's numbers do not include statistics from many small, locally owned rental units that often cater to more low- and moderate-income residents.
The Dallas-Fort Worth area has outperformed the rest of the country, with more than 95% of renters meeting their payment obligations.
"As has been seen since the COVID-19 pandemic began, rent collections remain better in the upper-end and mid-range apartments than in the lower-tier properties," RealPage's Adam Couch said.
Apartment leasing in North Texas bounced back in the third quarter after a weaker leasing total in the previous three months.
Net apartment leasing in D-FW totaled almost 9,000 units in the third quarter and was the most of any U.S. metro area, according to RealPage.
The most recent quarter's North Texas apartment leasing more than doubled from the 3,832 net apartment leases in the second quarter during the worst of the COVID-19 shutdown.
