3 ms·

> through the first five days of April, 31 percent of tenants had so far failed to pay their rent, compared with 18 percent in the same period a year ago. If t

by mkl 7y ago

> through the first five days of April, 31 percent of tenants had so far failed to pay their rent, compared with 18 percent in the same period a year ago. If the headline had said 18%, the situation would have sounded bad to me, but apparently that's normal?

throwawayjava 7y ago
Depends on how long the rent goes delinquent. It's not uncommon for the rent to finally show up around the 15th. I used to rent out a property and would typically write the lease so that the rent was due within 5 days of the 1st. I would send a reminder but I didn't really start to worry as long as it showed up before the 20th. If it took longer than that I would start to worry. The difference here is that the percent of that 31% who really can't afford the rent -- not now, and not any time soon -- is probably closer to 100%.
- mkl 7y ago
  The article implied synchronised rents, and now you have too. To clarify: Are all rents in the US monthly and due on the first of the month? In NZ rent is weekly, on no particular day (can be different for each tenant).
  - chronomex 7y ago
    Yes, in the US rents are usually due on the first of the month and all months cost the same amount.
  - throwawayjava 7y ago
    > To clarify: Are all rents in the US monthly and due on the first of the month? Yes, at least in all the markets I'm aware of. If someone moves in after in the middle of a month, you'll pro-rate the rent for that first fraction of a month so that everyone's back on the monthly cycle for the rest of the lease (typically 12 months, but in some markets there's a strong preference for a particular month and so the lease will be written to end after less than 12 months. Typically uni towns where you really want to lease to end on August 31st regardless of when it started). To clarify the 15th: paychecks typically also always arrive bimonthy and on fixed days. So, people would fail to budget for the 1st but would be able to cover rent when their second bimonthly paycheck hit their account. As a land owner extracting rent from folks, I think it's more than fair that they get a ~10 day interest fee loan as needed. And even if I were an asshole, it wouldn't be in my economic interest to do anything about those sorts of 10 day delays. But I sort of suspect a lot of the folks who couldn't afford rent on the 1st of April 2020 won't be able to afford rent on the 15th of April 2020 either...
  - deleted 7y ago
    [deleted]
  - dhd415 7y ago
    Residential rentals in the US are priced by the month and I've never seen one in which the rent was not due on the first of the month.
    - deleted 7y ago
      [deleted]
    - kccqzy 7y ago
      Where I live, although the rent was technically due on the first, there's an automatic grace period of three days without late fees so the actual due date is the fourth.
  - noitsnot 7y ago
    Years of renting. I imagine it goes by state law but the grace period has always been three days. The 4th of the month is when the late fee would be tacked on.
- sethammons 7y ago
  The article pointed out that a significant portion of renters spend over half their income on their rent. If they are not working, they will not be able to ever make up the difference.
  - ramraj07 7y ago
    Seems about par for the average New Yorker. Folks in NYC seem especially gullible to spend more than half their paychecks on rent, something even folks in SF would hesitate. This is not for lack of options - my colleagues who make the same as me would rather pay $1000 more a month to stay in Manhattan instead of (a very comfortable still) place in Brooklyn. The commute is still very tolerable by any modern city standard, probably around 30 minutes (12 if you want to stay in downtown Brooklyn), but apparently thats too long?
    - sv9 7y ago
      Maybe instead we should ask ourselves why the rent is so high instead of blaming people who just want to minimize the time they take out of their short lives to spend commuting to a job they need to survive.
tree3 7y ago
Included in that 18% are people who aren't supposed to pay rent in the first 5 days of a month. Their rent is just due later in the month.
- jobigoud 7y ago
  In that case the use of the word "failed" is very misleading.

by mkl 7y ago

throwawayjava 7y ago

Depends on how long the rent goes delinquent. It's not uncommon for the rent to finally show up around the 15th. I used to rent out a property and would typically write the lease so that the rent was due within 5 days of the 1st. I would send a reminder but I didn't really start to worry as long as it showed up before the 20th. If it took longer than that I would start to worry. The difference here is that the percent of that 31% who really can't afford the rent -- not now, and not any time soon -- is probably closer to 100%.

mkl 7y ago
The article implied synchronised rents, and now you have too. To clarify: Are all rents in the US monthly and due on the first of the month? In NZ rent is weekly, on no particular day (can be different for each tenant).
- chronomex 7y ago
  Yes, in the US rents are usually due on the first of the month and all months cost the same amount.
- throwawayjava 7y ago
  > To clarify: Are all rents in the US monthly and due on the first of the month? Yes, at least in all the markets I'm aware of. If someone moves in after in the middle of a month, you'll pro-rate the rent for that first fraction of a month so that everyone's back on the monthly cycle for the rest of the lease (typically 12 months, but in some markets there's a strong preference for a particular month and so the lease will be written to end after less than 12 months. Typically uni towns where you really want to lease to end on August 31st regardless of when it started). To clarify the 15th: paychecks typically also always arrive bimonthy and on fixed days. So, people would fail to budget for the 1st but would be able to cover rent when their second bimonthly paycheck hit their account. As a land owner extracting rent from folks, I think it's more than fair that they get a ~10 day interest fee loan as needed. And even if I were an asshole, it wouldn't be in my economic interest to do anything about those sorts of 10 day delays. But I sort of suspect a lot of the folks who couldn't afford rent on the 1st of April 2020 won't be able to afford rent on the 15th of April 2020 either...
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
- dhd415 7y ago
  Residential rentals in the US are priced by the month and I've never seen one in which the rent was not due on the first of the month.
  - deleted 7y ago
    [deleted]
  - kccqzy 7y ago
    Where I live, although the rent was technically due on the first, there's an automatic grace period of three days without late fees so the actual due date is the fourth.
- noitsnot 7y ago
  Years of renting. I imagine it goes by state law but the grace period has always been three days. The 4th of the month is when the late fee would be tacked on.
sethammons 7y ago
The article pointed out that a significant portion of renters spend over half their income on their rent. If they are not working, they will not be able to ever make up the difference.
- ramraj07 7y ago
  Seems about par for the average New Yorker. Folks in NYC seem especially gullible to spend more than half their paychecks on rent, something even folks in SF would hesitate. This is not for lack of options - my colleagues who make the same as me would rather pay $1000 more a month to stay in Manhattan instead of (a very comfortable still) place in Brooklyn. The commute is still very tolerable by any modern city standard, probably around 30 minutes (12 if you want to stay in downtown Brooklyn), but apparently thats too long?
  - sv9 7y ago
    Maybe instead we should ask ourselves why the rent is so high instead of blaming people who just want to minimize the time they take out of their short lives to spend commuting to a job they need to survive.

tree3 7y ago

Included in that 18% are people who aren't supposed to pay rent in the first 5 days of a month. Their rent is just due later in the month.

jobigoud 7y ago
In that case the use of the word "failed" is very misleading.