In the fall of 2023, apartment REITs sounded the alarm during their earnings calls. The glut of apartment deliveries in many markets across the country was driving massive concessions from merchant developers.
In turn, public apartment companies had to drop prices, even on older assets that normally don’t compete with new supply. Analysts ended up downgrading some of those companies.
“This dynamic and its impact on our B-quality communities, in particular, was unexpected and unprecedented in my 30 years in the multifamily industry,” UDR CEO Tom Toomey said on the Highlands Ranch, Colorado-based REIT’s third-quarter 2023 conference call.
Three years later, in Q3 2026, supply pressures are still popping up in unexpected ways, especially for Sun Belt-centric REITs. For instance, Camden Property Trust lowered its 2026 same-store revenue guidance.
September performance, in particular, surprised the company and set the stage for that revision, according to CEO Alex Jessett. “It was a greater decline in traffic than we had expected,” he said. “And when we had the decline in traffic, obviously, you have to reduce your prices if you’re trying to increase traffic.”
Despite continued issues with concessions, there were many bright spots in the REIT Q3 2026 earnings reports, including strength in San Francisco and New York City. Read on for a look at results reported over the last couple of weeks.
