Rental Housing Weekly Briefing: February 23-27, 2026

Subscribe

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.

LAST WEEK in RENTAL HOUSING 

Real GDP: Headline Slows, Core Private Demand Holds  

• Real GDP increased at a 1.4% annualized rate in Q4 2025, down from 4.4% in Q3. The deceleration largely reflected declines in government spending and exports, including the temporary effects of the federal government shutdown, which BEA estimates subtracted roughly 1.0 percentage point from Q4 growth. For full-year 2025, real GDP rose 2.2%, moderating from 2.8% in 2024.

  
  

• Private domestic demand remains steadier than the headline suggests. Real final sales to private domestic purchasers — consumer spending plus fixed investment — increased 2.4% in Q4, signaling continued forward momentum in the core private economy. Consumer spending slowed but remained positive, while investment accelerated, driven by intellectual property products and equipment, notably information processing equipment and research and development.

  
  

• As economist Gad Levanon highlighted this week, business investment continues to outpace other GDP components, particularly software, R&D, and equipment — the AI buildout increasingly visible in the national accounts. Meanwhile, structures investment remains soft beneath the surface, even amid data center construction, suggesting traditional office and commercial real estate remain under pressure. The divergence between AI-driven capital spending and the rest of the economy is widening.

  
  

• Rental housing implication: The macro backdrop remains one of moderate expansion rather than contraction. Consumer spending is steady, and private domestic demand is positive — conditions consistent with continued rental demand stability. However, slower overall growth and structural weakness in commercial construction underscore a bifurcated economy: technology-led capital formation on one side, more normalized household activity on the other..

Rental Housing Finance Survey: Individual Investors Still Dominate SFR Ownership

• New Census Bureau Rental Housing Finance Survey data confirm that individual investors remain the backbone of the single-family rental (SFR) market. As of 2024, individuals directly account for 59.6% of one-unit rental ownership, by far the largest ownership cohort. Even when accounting for the growth in LLC and partnership structures, institutional ownership — including REITs and real estate corporations — represents only a small share of total stock.

  
  

• Ownership structures are evolving, but not consolidating. Since 2021, individual ownership has declined from 70.9% to 59.6%, while LLP/LP/LLC ownership has risen from 15.2% to 20.6%, and trustee ownership has increased notably. These shifts point more toward legal structuring changes and generational transitions than toward a surge in institutional concentration.

  
  

• Transaction data tell a complementary story. Recent acquisition data from Zonda show that among institutional buyers, small investors (10–99 units) now account for roughly two-thirds of single-family rental purchases. Larger institutional operators have pulled back relative to prior years, suggesting that capital flows within the SFR space are becoming more decentralized rather than more concentrated.

  
  

• The broader takeaway: While public debate often centers on institutional expansion, both ownership stock and recent transaction flow data indicate a fragmented market structure. Individual investors continue to dominate the existing SFR universe, and even within institutional activity, smaller operators are playing an increasingly prominent role.

  
  

THE WEEK AHEAD 

February 24, 2026:

• S&P Cotality Case-Shiller U.S. National Home Price Index

• Independent Landlord Rental Performance Report (Chandan Economics & RentRedi)

February 25, 2026:

• New Residential Sales (HUD)

February 27, 2026:

• Construction Spending (Census Bureau)