Rental payments nationwide have decreased since March, accordingto a rental trends report by Rentec Direct.

The trend isn't surprising, as the national unemployment ratehas increased almost 10 percent since this February, prior to thestart of stay-at-home orders. As tenants struggle to pay theirbills, rent is often the most expensive living expense with anaverage of at least 30 percent of a person's income.

In July, landlords and property managers received 26 percentfewer rent payments than in March. The percentage of rent paymentshad steadily declined since March, and had dropped an additionaltwo percent in the last month. The lower percentage of rentalpayments showed that the economic burden from the COVID-19 pandemicis worse than back in March. April showed the steepest drop inrental payments at 17 percent, with the rate of rental paymentsslowly declining since. May saw a two percent decrease from theprevious month, with an additional 5 percent decrease in June.