Even as unemployment has soared over the past few months, rent payments remained relatively steady due in no small part to the $600 weekly payments in federal unemployment benefits. Now that the extra $600 per week in benefits has ended and negotiations for an extension remain mired in Congress, the multifamily sector may well see an impact. 

The first two weeks of July saw an increase in missed rent payments, up to 12.4%, according to online real estate database Zillow. The missed payment rate was 9.9% at the same time in 2019. During the first week of July, 22.6% of U.S. apartment households didn't pay any rent, up from 19.2% from the first week of June and the highest point since March of this year. 

"The rental market has been more affected by the coronavirus pandemic than the for-sale side appears to have been. The steady climb of the past few years has come to an end as rent growth has slowed nationally and prices have outright fallen in a few markets,"  Zillow economist Joshua Clark said in a statement.