Distress includes any loan with a payment status of 30+ days, any loan actively with the special servicer, and includes non-performing and performing loans that have failed to pay off at maturity.

Source: CRED iQ

Charlotte is in the top 20 as well, with close to a third of workers staying home:

Other North Carolina cities making the list include Raleigh (#48), Durham (#64), Wilmington (#104), Winston-Salem (#150) and Greensboro (#172).

Source: CoStar

It’s fallen back in line with the 10 previous years (2004 – 2014), which averaged 93.4%.

Source: Real Page

Permits (+1.4%) and starts (+7.5%) were both up month-over-month, however, both were down from where they were a year ago (permits -26.6% and starts -9.5%).

Source: Real Page

South Carolina experienced the highest annual percentage growth in population and North Carolina ranked third.

Based on total population change, North and South Carolina were in the top four:

Monthly and annual rent changes through December:

Source:	Month:	Monthly:	Annual:	Vacancy:
Apartment List	December	-0.80%	-1.00%	6.50%
CoStar	December	0.04%	0.79%	7.43%
Apartments Advisor	December	0.12%	-3.03%	N/A
Apartments.com	December	0.00%	0.80%	7.50%
Redfin	December	-0.20%	-0.80%	N/A
Zillow Single Family	December	-0.20%	3.30%	N/A
Zillow Multifamily	December	-0.30%	2.70%	N/A
Yardi Matrix	December	-0.23%	0.30%	N/A
Rent.com	December	-0.11%	-0.78%	N/A
Realtor.com	December	-0.23%	-0.40%	N/A
	Average:	-0.19%	0.19%	7.14%

The National Multifamily Housing Council conducted a survey on tenant fraud and the results were alarming. 93.3% of owners reported experiencing fraud in the past twelve months and 70% said the cases are increasing. Within that group:

• 84.3% have seen applicants falsifying or fabricating pay stubs, employment references or other income documentation
• 80.0% observed prospective renters misrepresenting information on applications
• 70.0% reported identity theft, fraudulent ID documents or use of another individual’s personal information
• 67.1% experienced unauthorized cohabitants, illegal subletting or other actions to evade application or the leasing process
• 62.9% of respondents reported the use of fraudulent checks or other payment methods
• 23.8% of their eviction filings were due to fraudulent applications and subsequent failure to pay rent
• 47.2% of respondents said it varies by jurisdiction, with many of this group calling out Atlanta and markets in Texas and Florida specifically

Respondents were required to write off an average of nearly $4.2 million in bad debt and a quarter (24.5%) of this bad debt, on average, could be attributed to nonpayment of rent due to fraudulent applications.

“There are entire online (tenant) communities that collaborate to discuss fraud,” said Daniel Berlind, who runs Snappt (a company that helps landlords identify fraud) as well as his own real estate firm, Berlind Properties. “There are videos on TikTok that have millions of views, showing how to edit documents. There are entire forums on Reddit that discuss properties and lease-up, what their concessions are and literally give walkthrough guidance to would-be fraudulent applicants and how they can circumvent the process.”

Source: NMHC and Bisnow

Wages have outpaced rent growth for 13 consecutive months. This trend is likely to persist in the near term helping to balance the massive rent outperformance in 2021.

In addition, wages rising by 4% have a much greater impact than rents rising by 4%. Why?

The median income in the United States is $59,540. A 4% increase is $2,316. If you subtract out a third for state and federal taxes, that leaves you with a $1,529 take home gain.

The median multifamily rent is $1,379 or $16,548 annually. A 4% increase is $662. If both wages and rents rise by 4% then the wage earner is gaining $867 annually ($1,529 – $662).

However, wages are currently rising by over 4% annually while rents are flat and falling: