4 Reasons To Add Essex Property (ESS) To Your Portfolio Now
Zacks Investment Research | Aug 14, 2019 08:45AM ET
The current year’s prime leasing period proved to be an encouraging one for the U.S. apartment market with decent rent growth and increasing occupancy level. Per the latest report from real estate technology and analytics firm RealPage, with an impressive leasing activity in 2019’s peak season, occupancy rate in July reached 96.2%. The figure is not only up 0.4 points year on year, but also marks the highest rate since 2000.
With occupancy pushing up, rent growth also seems to be steady at 3.1%. Annual rent growth in July 2019 was approximately 40 basis points (bps) higher year over year and apartment rents averaged $1,414 across the United States. This comes after a solid performance in the April-June quarter.
For residential REITs, including Essex Property Trust, Inc. (NYSE:ESS) , AvalonBay Communities, Inc. (NYSE:AVB) , Equity Residential (NYSE:EQR) , UDR Inc. (NYSE:UDR) , this, indeed, came as a breather as high apartment deliveries had curtailed landlords’ ability to command more rents, and resulted in aggressive rental concessions and moderate pricing power of landlords.
However, not all residential REITs are equally poised to excel now, as location of properties play a crucial role in determining demand for properties. Nonetheless, one such residential REIT stock, which has been displaying strength, is Essex Property Trust. This Zacks Rank #2 (Buy) stock has gained around 12.4% over the past six months, outperforming 9.8% growth recorded by the Zacks Investment Research
Get The News You Want
Trading in financial instruments and/or cryptocurrencies involves high risks including the risk of losing some, or all, of your investment amount, and may not be suitable for all investors. Prices of cryptocurrencies are extremely volatile and may be affected by external factors such as financial, regulatory or political events. Trading on margin increases the financial risks.
Before deciding to trade in financial instrument or cryptocurrencies you should be fully informed of the risks and costs associated with trading the financial markets, carefully consider your investment objectives, level of experience, and risk appetite, and seek professional advice where needed.
Fusion Media would like to remind you that the data contained in this website is not necessarily real-time nor accurate. The data and prices on the website are not necessarily provided by any market or exchange, but may be provided by market makers, and so prices may not be accurate and may differ from the actual price at any given market, meaning prices are indicative and not appropriate for trading purposes. Fusion Media and any provider of the data contained in this website will not accept liability for any loss or damage as a result of your trading, or your reliance on the information contained within this website.
It is prohibited to use, store, reproduce, display, modify, transmit or distribute the data contained in this website without the explicit prior written permission of Fusion Media and/or the data provider. All intellectual property rights are reserved by the providers and/or the exchange providing the data contained in this website.
Fusion Media may be compensated by the advertisers that appear on the website, based on your interaction with the advertisements or advertisers.