Southeast

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The National Multifamily Housing Council (NMHC) released data this morning showing that 87.7 percent of apartment households paid their May rent as of Wednesday. Though the rate is 2.1 percent lower year-over-year, it is a 2.7 percent increase from April. Last week, the NMHC Rent Payment Tracker found 80.2 percent of apartment households paid their May rent as of May 6. “Once again, despite the economic and health challenges facing so many, we have found that apartment residents who live in professionally managed properties are meeting their obligations,” says Doug Bibby, president of NMHC. The NMHC Rent Payment Tracker metric provides insight into changes in resident rent payment behavior over the course of each month, and, as the dataset ages, between months. The NMHC surveyed management companies responsible for 11.4 million units nationwide. There are 21.4 million apartments, in buildings with more than five units, according to the most recent American Community Survey from the U.S. Census Bureau. NMHC’s data does not track affordable housing units or units under control of smaller landlords.

WASHINGTON, D.C. — An additional 2.9 million Americans filed for first-time unemployment for the week that ended May 9, the U.S. Department of Labor reported. Since mid-March, 35.9 million Americans have filed jobless claims due to the COVID-19 outbreak. Economists surveyed by Dow Jones expected a slightly smaller total of 2.7 million claims. Even though the volume of claims are rising overall, the weekly amount has lessened for six consecutive weeks, the Department of Labor found. The four-week moving average was 3.6 million, which is a decrease of 564,000 from the previous week’s revised average.