Top 5 Highest and Lowest Rent Collection States of April 2020

[Ellie Perlman]

Some very interesting data to share with you all on April rent collections across the US. One of the factors that particularly caught my attention was the impact of agriculture across several of the markets. In your experiences, what industries have you found to be the most consistent for multifamily housing demand, across multiple market cycles? (my team primarily gathered data from NMHC Rent Tracker, and some additional sources) 

While gathering this data, we wanted to be mindful of not only the COVID rates within the states, but even more so, the economic impact including unemployment rates, impacted GDP industries, and of course rent collections.

Here are the top 5 and least 5 collection impacted states, along with their respective applicable COVID-19 and market data:

The 5 Lowest Rent Collection States in April 2020:

5. South Carolina
Rent Collections: 73%
COVID-19 Total Cases: 3,931
Unemployment Rate as of March 31st: 2.6%
Percentage of Renters Statewide: 31.25%
Top 3 GDP Industries in State: Aerospace, Agribusiness, Automotive

4. Tennessee
Rent Collections: 72%
COVID-19 Total Cases: 6,589
Unemployment Rate as of March 31st: 3.5%
Percentage of Renters Statewide: 34.57%
Top 3 GDP Industries in State: Agriculture, Manufacturing, Tourism

3. Arkansas
Rent Collections: 72%
COVID-19 Total Cases: 1,700
Unemployment Rate as of March 31st: 4.8%
Percentage of Renters Statewide: 34.75%
Top 3 GDP Industries in State: Agriculture, Transport and Logistics, Aerospace and Defense

2. Maine
Rent Collections: 71%
COVID-19 Total Cases: 827
Unemployment Rate as of March 31st: 3.2%
Percentage of Renters Statewide: 26.83%
Top 3 GDP Industries in State: Healthcare, Retail, Tourism

1. Connecticut
Rent Collections: 66%
COVID-19 Total Cases: 15,884
Unemployment Rate as of March 31st: 3.7%
Percentage of Renters Statewide: 33.80%
Top 3 GDP Industries in State: Finance and Insurance, Healthcare, Education

The 5 Highest Rent Collection States in April 2020:

5. Wisconsin
Rent Collections: 91%
COVID-19 Total Cases: 4,045
Unemployment Rate as of March 31st: 3.4%
Percentage of Renters Statewide: 33.39%
Top 3 GDP Industries in State: Dairy, Manufacturing, IT

4. South Dakota
Rent Collections: 92%
COVID-19 Total Cases: 1,411
Unemployment Rate as of March 31st: 3.3%
Percentage of Renters Statewide: 32.29%
Top 3 GDP Industries in State: Agriculture, Fishing, Forestry

3. Montana
Rent Collections: 93%
COVID-19 Total Cases: 422
Unemployment Rate as of March 31st: 3.5%
Percentage of Renters Statewide: 30.85%
Top 3 GDP Industries in State: Agriculture, Healthcare, Forestry

2. Texas
Rent Collections: 93%
COVID-19 Total Cases: 17,371
Unemployment Rate as of March 31st: 4.7%
Percentage of Renters Statewide: 38.03%
Top 3 GDP Industries in State: Petroleum and Natural Gas, Farming, Steel

1. Idaho
Rent Collections: 96%
COVID-19 Total Cases: 1,609
Unemployment Rate as of March 31st: 2.6%
Percentage of Renters Statewide: 30.34%
Top 3 GDP Industries in State: Agriculture, Manufacturing, Mining

[Nathan Gesner]

This is good information, but too general to serve any purpose for me. I manage 350-ish rentals and collected about 95% by the 5th, which is pretty normal. I worked my way to 98% and still have 2% that haven't paid due to delayed unemployment payments or other reasons related to COVID-19.