Eviction Pressures Abating as Economy, Labor Market Continue to Improve
- Rising infections prompt moratorium extension. On Aug. 3 the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention enacted a new order halting residential evictions in counties with substantial or high levels of COVID-19 community transmission.
- Federal aid and job growth lower eviction pressure. Contrary to initial expectations, rent collections have held up fairly well during the health crisis.
- Multifamily sector performing well. Rental demand has already recovered substantially from last year, with a record number of apartments absorbed in the second quarter.
Additional Factors:
- Court backlog may provide time for aid to arrive. Congress has allocated close to $47 billion in rental assistance, with $25 billion released so far, but the rollout has been slow.
- Estimates of renter hardship likely skewed by statistical issues. Some higher-end estimates of rent delinquency have come from the Household Pulse Survey, a recent experimental dataset.
