[throwawayjava]

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]

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).

[throwawayjava]

> 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...

[dhd415]

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.

[kccqzy]

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.

[chronomex]

Yes, in the US rents are usually due on the first of the month and all months cost the same amount.

[noitsnot]

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]

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]

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?