The big six apartment REITs just wrapped up their Q4 2025 earnings calls. Rental housing economist Jay Parsons shares the seven key themes and takeaways from those calls — and what these trends might mean for the broader multifamily market. Those themes include improvement in multifamily fundamentals headed into the spring leasing season (including some initial reduction in concessions) and yet still muted expectations for rent growth in 2026, the continued strength of New York and San Francisco coupled with lingering challenges in other coastal markets (and related news of Camden exiting California), signs of momentum in the supply-drenched Sun Belt, plus more stock buybacks as REITs continue to trade at big discounts to net asset value. Later in the program, Jay welcomes in REIT analyst Jana Galan from Bank of America Securities. Jana gives her take on the effectiveness of buybacks and how Wall Street investors see apartments today compared to other asset classes, as well as her thoughts on the eventual recovery. Additionally, Jay reviews headlines of the week impacting rental housing, and gives his take on a recent congressional hearing on housing affordability and a potential ban on large investors buying single-family homes.
