The Rent Roll with Jay Parsons

Rental housing economist Jay Parsons is joined by commercial real estate journalist Hiten Samtani for a hearty discussion on how the media covers apartments and single-family rentals. Jay and Hiten talk about the "lost art of beat reporting," with relatively short tenures on the housing beat, and how that impacts rental housing coverage. Hiten also challenges rental housing owners to call out the...

American Homes 4 Rent CEO Bryan Smith joins rental housing economist Jay Parsons on the podcast to reflect back on the early years of institutional single-family rentals, and how AMH became one of the leading players in the still-small institutional SFR market. How much have the initial strategies held up since AMH's 2013 IPO? You might be surprised to find it's quite a lot -- from target demograp...

Waterton co-founder, CEO and Chairman David Schwartz joins The Rent Roll podcast to talk contrarian apartment investing strategies with rental housing economist Jay Parsons. David shares his story getting into the multifamily industry in the 1980s amidst a period of economic turmoil combined with unfavorable views of apartments. He played key roles at then-emerging names like AMLI and Equity Resid...

Is the U.S. apartment market slowing down? Rental housing economist Jay Parsons dives into the data to evaluate whether apartment owners and managers should be concerned. Why is rent growth moderating again and concessions ticking back up if demand remains strong, occupancy is holding steady, supply is declining and renter rent-to-income ratios are improving? And in the second half of this episode...

The man's alter ego is the famed CRE Analyst account with more than 90,000 followers — James Ray, the co-founder of CRE Analyst and a managing director at MetLife. James joins rental housing economist Jay Parsons to make his case for why "cap rates are B.S.," why the wall of maturities is overblown, explains why the "buy versus build" debate isn't as simply as often portrayed, and shares how insti...

To fee or not to fee? Rental housing economist Jay Parsons tackles the hot-button topic of fees for apartment and SFR renters. With short-term rentals and event ticketing sites now rolling fees into all-in pricing, will apartments and single-family rentals be next? Jay talks with BH Management CEO Joanna Zabriskie, who oversees a portfolio of more than 100,000 units, about BH's pilot of all-in pri...

Rental housing economist Jay Parsons shares the latest on the real estate fundraising landscape. It's a tough environment right now for multiple reasons. How can GPs make the case for multifamily and SFR? Jay shares some data and talking points that aim to be (semi) helpful, but the reality is it's a challenging market. Alicia Miller, head of U.S. capital markets for Black Salmon, joins the show t...

It's all about SFR and BTR in this episode, where rental housing economist Jay Parsons shares his Top 5 takeaways from the single-family REITs' recent earnings calls AND talks build-to-rent opportunities with the one of the nation's most prominent BTR players. Jay shares how the SFR market is seeing some overlapping themes with the apartment sector — including solid performances in Q1, low residen...

Rental housing economist Jay Parsons breaks down earnings call season for the apartment REITs, offering up five big takeaways from what turned out to be a moderately upbeat quarter. Jay shares why REITs continue to see strong fundamentals ... and yet aren't raising guidance. Jay also shares key insights from REIT commentaries on hot topics like renter financial health, low turnover, impact of fede...

Airbnb's Global Head of Real Estate, Jesse Stein, joins The Rent Roll podcast to talk conspiracy theories about the impact of short-term rentals on the long-term rental market, real solutions, as well as to share Airbnb's strategy of partnering with apartment owners to empower apartment residents to make their units available for short-term stays. Additionally, host Jay Parsons toasts the retiring...

Multifamily housing construction is slowing — and fast. While current deliveries are putting significant downward pressure on rents, the story could very soon shift from "oversupply" back to "undersupply." Rental housing economist Jay Parsons shares the latest data on apartment starts and completions, and asks: Could YIMBYs be part of the answer in bringing back at least pickup in apartment constr...

Rental housing economist Jay Parsons tackles today's biggest newsmaker: tariffs. What impact are tariffs having on apartment and BTR construction and operations? How much will new starts be impacted? What components are most impacted by tariffs? Jay cuts through the noise and hot air to share five observations and insights on the potential impacts of tariffs on multifamily and build-to-rent housin...

Rental housing economist Jay Parsons breaks down the latest and freshest data on the U.S. apartment market — including supply (on the decline), demand (on the rise) and rents (ticking back upward). What's driving the improvement and how is the outlook changing given recent noise around the economy? Cortland's EVP and Head of Research, Lee Everett, joins the podcast to share his perspective on the...

Rental Housing Economist Jay Parsons breaks down 25 years of the NMHC Top 50 apartment owners lists to reveal some surprising facts and history. For example: Did you know the NMHC Top 50 own only 11% of U.S. apartments? Or that the top owners of the late 1990s and 2000s were much bigger — in terms of unit counts — than today's largest owners? Or that the floor for the Top 25 Developers is lower th...

Rental housing economist Jay Parsons breaks down the case for the Southeast's apartment and single-family rental markets. While some pontificators have openly fretted over slowing population growth, Jay shares data and forecasts showing the Southeast (as well as Southwest) — while moderating — remain much better positioned for growth (particularly among young adults more likely to rent) than o...

Rental housing economist Jay Parsons dives deep into a topic that is far more nuanced than it's typically given credit for: low turnover among renters. Nearly everyone wants to give all the credit to the lack of move-outs to buy single-family homes. And certainly that's a factor, but is it the only factor? The data suggests it's just one of several factors at play. Jay examines other factors that...

Rental housing economist Jay Parsons breaks down a new groundbreaking study on Opportunity Zones, which have proven to be remarkably effective — and efficient — in producing housing. Jay shares key takeaways from the study and then welcomes in "The Wizard of OZ" — Opportunity Zone apartment developer Barrett Linburg. Barrett and Jay talk about why the program has been a win/win for investors and f...

Rental housing economist Jay Parsons talks about the shifting institutional appetite for apartments and build-to-rent SFR with ACRE co-founder Michael Van Der Poel. Jay shares the latest data on capital flows-- which have increasingly shifted away from higher regulated markets on the coasts toward growth markets in the Sun Belt and Mountains, as well as the Midwest. Jay highlights the unique chall...

Rental housing economist Jay Parsons breaks down the five key takeaways from the single-family rental housing REITs' recent earnings calls. The big one: Why did SFR revenue growth slow down given few home sales plus a large discount to rent versus buy? Punchline: The mainstream narrative has been wrong — and always was wrong. Jay breaks down why that's happening. Jay also shares the latest...

Rental housing economist Jay Parsons makes the case for tertiary markets — smaller metro areas outside the top 50 in size. Jay shares data on how (and why) smaller markets have outperformed on rent growth in recent years, and reveals which tertiary markets might continue to see strong demand for apartments and single-family rentals into the next cycle. Jay also shows data highlighting how investor...

Rental housing economist Jay Parsons dives into the growing trend of institutions expanding or creating debt funds targeting multifamily. Jay is joined for the discussion by Dan Walsh, the founder and CEO of Citymark Capital, which sold most of its apartment equity investments around the market's peak, and has since shifted to buying loans from banks and debt funds. Dan shares what led him to...

Rental housing economist Jay Parsons breaks down highlights and key themes from the big six apartment REITs' recent earnings call. Jay shares the REITs' case for ramping up apartment construction at a time when most builders are unable to start projects, and why Sun Belt REITs believe the "tide is starting to turn" on the supply/demand balance, among other takeaways. Jay later welcomes in the co-f...

Rental housing economist Jay Parsons recaps highlights from the multifamily investment community's biggest event, the NMHC Annual Meeting, and then dives into the case for the Midwest. Why are institutional and other large multifamily/SFR investors showing an interest in the Midwest after basically ignoring the region for many years? Jay breaks down what's driving renewed interest in the M...

Rental housing economist Jay Parsons talks all things rental housing demographics with the man who literally wrote the book on housing demographics, Chris Porter of John Burns Research & Consulting. Jay and Chris share the latest data on household formation, population by age, migration, incomes, renter preferences — and then tie back how these data points impact the trajectory of the apartmen...

Rental housing economist Jay Parsons breaks down the latest data and trends on the build-to-rent sector -- the emerging hybrid of multifamily and SFR. Jay then welcomes in the first person to scale to BTR model in the U.S., Steve Kimmelman of Redwood Living, who today owns more than 3x more BTR units than the next largest player. Jay asks Steve what he saw before everyone else, and why he embraces...