COMMERCIAL REAL ESTATE'S ECONOMIC ADVISORS

February 2026 data from the Independent Landlord Rental Performance Report show on-time rent payments rebounding to 83.7%, with late-payment pressure easing and full-payment rates reaching their strongest level since late summer 2025. While year-over-year collections remain below prior levels, the trend continues to point toward stabilization in the mom-and-pop rental market.

National multifamily rents rose 1.4% year over year in January 2026 as rent growth continued to moderate. Metro-level performance remains uneven across markets.

This week’s Rental Housing Weekly Briefing breaks down the latest real GDP data, new Census findings on single-family rental ownership, how institutional acquisition trends compare with broader ownership patterns, and the key releases to watch in the week ahead.

A closer look at the US Census Bureau’s Rental Housing Finance Survey shows that individual investors still account for the majority of single-family rental ownership, even as legal structures continue to evolve.

This week’s Rental Housing Weekly Briefing examines trends in small multifamily investment activity, emerging signals from the New York Fed’s Household Debt and Credit Report, what shifting consumer credit conditions may imply for rental housing performance, and the key data releases to watch in the week ahead.

This week’s Rental Housing Weekly Briefing examines emerging signals from the Federal Reserve’s Senior Loan Officer Opinion Survey on multifamily credit conditions, alongside recent trends in multifamily CMBS delinquencies as reported by Trepp, and the key data releases to watch in the week ahead.

This week’s Rental Housing Weekly Briefing examines key takeaways from NMHC’s Annual Meeting, including evolving capital markets and operating dynamics in multifamily, alongside recent national home price trends from the S&P Cotality Case-Shiller Index and the key data releases to watch in the week ahead.

This week’s Rental Housing Weekly Briefing examines apartment property price trends using MSCI Real Capital Analytics’ CPPI, recent rent collection performance among independent landlords, and the key data releases to watch in the week ahead.

Recent national data continue to point toward gradual improvement across independently operated rental properties. While on-time payment rates remain well below post-pandemic highs, the stabilization observed since late summer has carried into early 2026.