The Rent Roll with Jay Parsons

Rental housing economist Jay Parsons dives deep with UDR, America's longest-running apartment REIT, sharing the story from UDR's founding as a small Virginia operator in the 1970s to its growth into an S&P 500 company — and the many turns along the way. UDR's chief financial officer, David Bragg, joins the podcast and covers a wide range of topics from thoughts on the AvalonBay/Equity Residential merger to stock buybacks to managing apartments without leasing staff on site. Additionally, Jay gives his take on the big headline of the week: The U.S. Senate and House reached agreement on the ROAD to Housing Act, clearing its path to passage. What does that mean for single-family rentals and build-to-rent? Jay summarizes the legislation and its potential impact. Also, Jay shares the latest Census data on multifamily starts, and why you should take that data with a heavy grain of salt.

It's one of the largest apartment owners in the U.S., yet still often suffers from a case of mistaken identity: Berkshire. As in Berkshire Residential Investments, not Berkshire Hathaway. The two are not related, yet both companies track back 60+ years with names originating from the same part of the country. Rental housing economist Jay Parsons shares the story of the "other" Berkshire, and then talks with Berkshire's managing director and head of property operators, Alan King, about the state of the apartment market across the country. Berkshire operates all over the country, and Alan shares which markets are seeing market conditions improving fastest and how he sees the year progressing for multifamily operators. Additionally, with spring now in the books, Jay shares the latest on apartment rent and occupancy trends. Did the spring leasing play out as expected? Also in this episode, Jay breaks down a busy week of news headlines — including a lengthy article critical of the Low Income Housing Tax Credit, plus three major news releases from apartment REITs.

Rental housing economist Jay Parsons breaks down the realities of today's multifamily market: Debt is readily available, but equity is not ... unless it's preferred equity. Jay shares the latest data, including the historic spike in apartment loan originations, and explains why that might trigger some institutions to shift back toward equity strategies. Later in the program, Jay is joined by one of the early believers in the preferred equity, Marble Capital's David Oelfke. David talks about his journey starting ARA, growing it (along with partners) into a major apartment brokerage shop, selling it to Newmark, and then starting a new venture focused on preferred equity. How does preferred equity work and what are the advantages over common equity? Additionally, Jay analyzes the latest headlines on rental housing, including another big platform acquisition.

Is it better to manage properties in house, or to outsource to a third-party manager? It's an age-old question, and there's no one-size-fits-all answer. But there's no doubt that we continue to see far more consolidation in the management business than we do in property ownership. Why is that? Lantower Residential COO Emily Watson joins the podcast to share her experience, and talks about why her answer has evolved. Lantower recently made the decision to close its in-house management arm and hire a national third-party property manager. Emily candidly shares what drove that decision, how technology is changing the management game, and what early results they've seen thus far. Additionally on this episode, rental housing economist Jay Parsons gives his take on a busy week of headlines — breaking down the announced merger between AvalonBay and Equity Residential, as well as analyzing the impact of the U.S. House's major housing bill that just passed with overwhelmingly bipartisan support. Jay also shares recurring segments like Rental Housing Trivia, Good News and New Digs — where he profiles a recently announced major office-to-residential tower conversion.

It's a very tough environment for apartment developers to get new projects started these days, with starts cut in half from 2022's peak levels. So what are the common denominators for projects breaking ground of late? Rental housing economist Jay Parsons dives into the data and shares five common themes among projects that are still working today even amidst softer rents and higher cost of capital. One unique profile includes master-planned development with long-term build-to-hold ownership. Jay travels to Raleigh and talks with Rob Reid of Kane Realty — which has been some of Raleigh's coolest live/work/play neighborhoods — for a conversation on placemaking. Additionally, Jay brings back recurring segments like In the News, Rental Housing Trivia, Good Question and Good News.