COVID-19 News Round-up for August 14

Economic News 
80 Percent of Retail Tenants Paid July Rent 
Fewer than 60 percent of national brand retail tenants paid their rents in May, but 80 percent mailed the checks in July, according to the Datex Tenant Track of more than 1,000 shopping centers and tens of thousands of retail stores. (Source: Real Estate Daily News) 
Alternate CRE Lending Dries Up 
Lending for commercial real estate deals through commercial mortgage-backed securities and other nonbank, non-life company sources has nearly ground to a halt, according to a new lender survey by CBRE. (Source: Bisnow) 
80 Percent of Apartment Renters Paid in August 
A total of 79.3 percent of apartment households made full or partial payments by August 6th, according to the National Multifamily Housing Council’s rent payment tracker. The group surveyed 11.4 million market-rate apartments across the country. That 79.3 percent represents a 1.9 percent decrease from the same time last year, but a jump from last month, when 77.4 percent of market-rate renters had paid rent by July 6th. (Source: Bisnow) 
Small Businesses Failing in Droves 
According to a recent Bloomberg report, small businesses are disappearing by the thousands amid the COVID-19 pandemic, and the drag on the economy from these failures could be huge. Accurate assessments are unavailable, “in part because real-time data on small business is notoriously scarce, and because owners of small firms often have no debt, and thus no need for bankruptcy court.” (Source: National Real Estate Investor)