Rent Collections Down Even as Rent Growth Breaks Records; Portland Up 11.3% and Seattle up 9.5% Year-Over-Year

In a retroactive survey of 2020 rent collections survey results show a significant decrease in collections. Rent growth in 2021 however appears to be another story. 

• Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative, the Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies, and the Housing Initiative at the University of Pennsylvania conducted the 2020 rent survey from February-April of 2021. The findings show that small owners had the highest exposure to rental non-payment both prior to and during the pandemic, but mid-sized owners saw the largest increase in non-payment. The findings highlight the preexisting financial precarity of small property owners, as well as the tenuous financial position of mid-sized owners in 2020. The full 50-page report can be downloaded here. 
  
  
• In its latest report for August 2021, Yardi-Matrix reports asking rent growth is breaking records across the country with asking rents up an astounding 10.3% in August on a year-over-year basis. Portland exceeded the national benchmark with rents up 11.3% and Seattle has come in just under at 9.5%. 
  
  
• Also in Yardi's report is an updated rent growth forecast for 2021. 
• Portland 2021 rent growth is forecast at 9.1% 
• Seattle 2021 rent growth is forecast at 7%