Is Equity Residential (EQR) The Best Real Estate Stock to Buy for Long-Term Growth?
We recently published a list of 13 Most Profitable Real Estate Stocks Now. In this article, we are going to take a look at where Equity Residential (NYSE:EQR) stands against the other most profitable real estate stocks now.
Real Estate and the Aftermath of the Fed Rate Cut
As reported by Redfin, buying a home has gotten affordable for the first time since 2020 as homebuyers need to earn $115,000 to afford the typical home. While Senior Economist Elijah de la Campa thinks this could be a good time to buy a home with housing affordability improving for the first time in four years, he thinks the market won’t be cheaper in the near future. This is because the Fed’s recent rate cut and the following rate cut plans have already been priced into the mortgage rates since they were highly anticipated.
Another optimistic news for homebuyers on the sidelines was the housing payments witnessing the biggest decline in 4 years ahead of the Fed’s historic rate cut. These payments have gone down by almost $300 from April’s all-time high. The median housing payment was reported to be $2,534 during the four weeks ending September 15, down 2.7% year-over-year. With lower mortgage rates and less inventory, the housing market is still unaffordable for many but it is as good as it gets in the words of Orphe Divounguy, Zillow’s senior economist.
Regarding the aforementioned optimism for homebuyers, Robert Reffkin, Compass founder and CEO, stated that homebuyers are much more active than they were before. In his opinion, consumers react more to the change in mortgage rates rather than the absolute rate itself. He told CNBC that buyers now know not to take a relatively lower rate for granted after being through a period of elevated mortgage rates. Meanwhile, the major issue has been the lock-in effect during the preceding 2 years since 75% of the homeowners were locked into 4% mortgage rates or below, a percentage which is now approaching 50%. With declining mortgage rates, he expects the lock-in effect to drop and the housing inventory to grow.
With the declining mortgage rates, refinancings have surged. Mortgage applications hit the highest levels since July 2022 as the rates dropped. According to the Mortgage Bankers Association, applications to refinance or purchase a home in the week that ended September 20 increased 11% week-over-week while the refinancing applications climbed 20% during the period. This marks the 2nd consecutive week of double-digit gains in applications. Overall, the refinance activity is still modest with seasonally slow homebuying complemented with high home prices and a shortage of inventory.
Our Methodology:
In order to compile a list of the 13 most profitable real estate stocks, we created an initial list of 30 companies with the biggest market caps. Moving on, we screened out those companies that had a positive net income in the last twelve months and had grown their net income positively over the past 5 years. For the 5-year net income growth, we have considered the compound annual growth rates on a TTM basis. Finally, we ranked the shortlisted companies in ascending order of their hedge funds, as of Q2 2024.
At Insider Monkey we are obsessed with the stocks that hedge funds pile into. The reason is simple: our research has shown that we can outperform the market by imitating the top stock picks of the best hedge funds. Our quarterly newsletter’s strategy selects 14 small-cap and large-cap stocks every quarter and has returned 275% since May 2014, beating its benchmark by 150 percentage points (see more details here).
An exterior shot of a newly acquired apartment building, signifying the company’s acquisition of large residential properties.
Equity Residential (NYSE:EQR)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 30
5 Year Net Income Growth: 5.13%
Equity Residential (NYSE:EQR) focuses on the acquisition, development, and management of residential properties located in dynamic cities that attract affluent long-term renters. The firm owns or has investments in 299 properties comprising 79,738 apartment units, with a strong presence in major cities including Boston, New York, Washington, D.C., Seattle, San Francisco, and Southern California, and a growing presence in Denver, Atlanta, Dallas/Ft. Worth and Austin.
Equity Residential started off in 1993 as a portfolio of about 20,000 apartment units positioned primarily in garden-style properties in the Midwest and South. The company’s high-quality, well-located apartment properties continue to capture a strong demand. The firm has positioned this portfolio of urban and suburban properties in places that attract a resident demographic that chooses to rent for lifestyle reasons and due to less housing affordability.
Equity Residential (NYSE:EQR) takes advantage of a general undersupply of housing for both renting and owning. Its markets have a high cost of single-family housing which creates a robust demand to rent. The firm’s apartment business also benefits from its prime demographic opting for marrying later and having children later than previous generations. The firm focuses on the affluent renter who is well employed with rising wages, a dynamic that supports rental growth.
During 2023, Equity Residential witnessed an all-time high same-store revenue growth of 5.6%. The company has been witnessing the same positive momentum in 2024. The second quarter highlight for the firm includes same-store revenue increasing by 2.9%. This revenue rise was motivated by strong demand and modest supply across the majority of the markets.
The firm is simultaneously unlocking growth opportunities since it recently agreed to acquire a $964 million apartment portfolio from Blackstone Real Estate. These properties are situated in Equity Residential’s expansion markets of Atlanta, Dallas/Ft. Worth and Denver, and are attractive to the firm’s higher-end renter demographic, thereby boosting its growth in these markets. Amidst favorable demographics complementing a strategically positioned and well-established portfolio, Equity Residential (NYSE:EQR) is poised to grow. The stock is held by 30 hedge funds, as of Q2 2024.
Overall EQR ranks 11th on our list of most profitable real estate stocks now. While we acknowledge the potential of EQR as an investment, our conviction lies in the belief that some deeply undervalued AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns, and doing so within a shorter timeframe. If you are looking for a deeply undervalued AI stock that is more promising than EQR but that trades at less than 5 times its earnings, check out our report about the cheapest AI stock.
READ NEXT: $30 Trillion Opportunity: 15 Best Humanoid Robot Stocks to Buy According to Morgan Stanley and Jim Cramer Says NVIDIA ‘Has Become A Wasteland’.
Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.