Rent Is Due Again and Missing Payments Have Landlords Worrying

Mounting economic fallout from the pandemic is fueling apartment landlords’ concerns that more tenants will struggle to make their rent payments, even after most managed to come up with the money for April.

“May 1 will be a bigger watershed,” said John Pawlowski, a senior analyst at real estate research firm Green Street Advisors. “Think about when the job losses started accelerating.”

Only 69% of renters had made a full or partial payment during the first week of April, according to the National Multifamily Housing Council, a trade group for...