ELS, Equity Lifestyle Properties, Inc.
Our Properties generally attract retirees, vacationing families, second homeowners and first-time homebuyers by providing a community experience and a lower-cost home ownership alternative.
Read top to bottom, the owner's questions in the order an owner asks them: what the business is, whether the record holds, whether it survives and is any good, and what you would be paying. New to the questions? Start with the Method.
The business in brief
read the 10-K →What this business is and what moves its needle, read from the numbers in its filings. The quantitative detail is in the sections below; the verdict is left to you.
- What it is
- A property business, read on funds from operations and net asset value rather than reported earnings.
- What moves the needle
- Occupancy, rents, and the cost of debt. Read on funds from operations and net asset value, because GAAP depreciation distorts the earnings.
- Is it a good business?
- Funds from operations per share have compounded about 7% a year across the record. The dividend takes 64% of FFO, and is covered. Debt is 58% of assets, heavy for a REIT. The quality and location of the properties, the lease terms and occupancy, and the cost of the debt are what the 10-K settles, and no single ratio captures them.
Every line here is arithmetic from the company's own filings, not a model's opinion, and each figure appears in full in the sections below.
The record, 2016–2025
realized figures from each filing, no estimates| 2016’16 | 2017’17 | 2018’18 | 2019’19 | 2020’20 | 2021’21 | 2022’22 | 2023’23 | 2024’24 | 2025’25 | TTMTTMMar 2026 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| RevenueRevenue | $870M | $14M | $15M | $19M | $22M | $1.3B | $1.4B | $1.5B | $1.5B | $1.5B | $1.5B |
| Net incomeNet inc. | $187M | $210M | $226M | $296M | $241M | $276M | $299M | $330M | $385M | $402M | $399M |
| Funds from operationsFFO | — | $334M | $364M | $396M | $397M | $465M | $501M | $533M | $589M | $611M | $610M |
| FFO / shareFFO/sh | — | $1.79 | $1.91 | $2.06 | $2.06 | $2.41 | $2.57 | $2.73 | $2.99 | $3.05 | $3.05 |
| Dividend payout (FFO)Payout | — | 49% | 52% | 55% | 61% | 56% | 59% | 61% | 60% | 64% | — |
| Debt / assetsDebt/assets | 60% | 61% | 60% | 54% | 55% | 62% | 62% | 63% | 57% | 58% | 58% |
| Total debtDebt | $2.1B | $2.2B | $2.4B | $2.2B | $2.4B | $3.3B | $3.4B | $3.5B | $3.2B | $3.3B | $3.3B |
| Dividends / shareDiv/sh | $0.75 | $0.88 | $1.00 | $1.13 | $1.26 | $1.36 | $1.52 | $1.67 | $1.78 | $1.94 | — |
| Book value / shareBVPS | $5.40 | $5.52 | $5.90 | $6.51 | $6.41 | $7.34 | $7.40 | $7.31 | $8.85 | $8.78 | $8.80 |
Owner’s Scorecard
Is it a good business?
- about $3.05 per shareNet income $402M + depreciation $209M
GAAP net income with property depreciation added back, because the buildings a REIT charges against earnings usually hold or grow their value. This, not net income, is what a REIT is actually priced on. It is an approximation here: where a filing reports gains on property sales, we remove them, the way the NAREIT definition does.
- CoveredDividends $388M ÷ FFO $611M
A REIT must distribute most of its taxable income, so a high payout is normal and the question is whether FFO covers it. Above 100%, the trust is funding the dividend with debt or asset sales, and a cut usually follows.
Is it sound?
- Debt / assets 58%ElevatedTotal debt $3.3B ÷ assets $5.7B
Every REIT runs on leverage; how much is the question. Heavy debt is what turns a property downturn into a wipeout, as 2008 showed, so a conservative balance sheet is part of the moat here, not a drag on it.
- Not enough data
Operating income or interest missing.
Solvent is not the same as cheap; growing is not the same as good. These are vital signs, not a verdict, the judgment is yours, and the filing is one click away.
Management & pay
read the proxy →Two questions Buffett actually asks about pay: is stock compensation, a real expense, whatever the income statement pretends, quietly large, and is the top wildly out of line with the floor. He's no populist about it; he just wants pay that's rational and earned, and comp committees that aren't lapdogs.
- CEO pay ratio102:1
What the chief earns for every dollar the median employee makes, per the 2026 proxy. A high ratio isn't proof of anything, some businesses are genuinely top-heavy in scarce skill, but a runaway figure is where Buffett starts asking whether the board is doing its job or just keeping the chair company.
- Stock-based compensation$7M
The slice of the business handed to employees in shares this year, 0% of revenue, equal to 2% of operating profit. Buffett's oldest accounting fight: this is compensation, compensation is an expense, real whether or not the headline earnings admit it. And note the trap, the cash-flow statement adds SBC back, so the operating cash, and the owner earnings drawn from it, are flattered by exactly this amount; counted as the cost it is, what an owner keeps is lower.
What the price implies
price / FFOA REIT is priced on a multiple of its funds from operations (FFO), the cash it earns once the depreciation on its buildings is added back. Type today’s price; we show the multiple you would pay and the income and growth it implies. Nothing is stored.
Enter a price above to run it.
The justified multiple is 1 ÷ (discount rate − growth), a perpetuity on FFO. At an 8% discount and 3% growth, a REIT is worth about 20× FFO. Raise the discount rate and the multiple falls: the same interest-rate gravity that pulls on every yield asset.
FFO about $3.05 per share on 200M shares. A lens, not a target. FFO here adds back depreciation and removes property-sale gains, the NAREIT method; it does not net out maintenance capex (AFFO), occupancy or lease terms, which the 10-K does.
What the filing emphasizes, FY2025
read the 10-K →Each year a 10-K must name what could go wrong, in the company's own words. Here are the ones Graham and Buffett would stop on, each set against the figure from the same filings that bears on it, anchored to a period you can find in the record above. We point; the judgment is yours.
- Customer concentrationRisk Factors
Who the revenue leans on. When one buyer is a large slice of sales, that buyer holds the pricing power, and its troubles become the company's.
“All revenues are from external customers and there is no customer who contributed 10% or more of our total revenues during the years ended December 31, 2025, 2024 and 2023.”
From the recordRevenue exposed (TTM)$1.5B - Debt terms & refinancingRisk Factors
The fine print behind the debt. Covenants and near-term maturities decide who is really in control when a year goes badly.
“Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures About Market Risk Our primary market risk exposure is interest rate changes at the time we need to obtain new or refinance existing long-term debt that is used to maintain liquidity and fund our operations.”
From the recordBalance sheet (TTM)$3.3B heavy net debt · no real interest burden - Litigation & contingenciesRisk Factors
Claims an owner inherits. Most disclosure is boilerplate; this fires only on an actual matter, a named suit, a settlement, a contingency, a number.
“On December 15, 2023, the plaintiffs filed an amended consolidated complaint captioned, In re Manufactured Home Lot Rents Antitrust Litigation, No. 1:23-cv-6715.”
A judgment, not a number, weigh it against the filing yourself. - Regulation & policyRisk Factors
Rules that can rewrite the economics, tariffs, antitrust, data, export controls.
“The decrease in Early debt retirement costs is due to the payment of approximately $5.8 million in swap termination fees and the write off of unamortized loan costs in connection with repayment of our $300 million unsecured term loan in 2024.”
A judgment, not a number, weigh it against the filing yourself.
What changed, FY2025 vs FY2024
read the 10-K →Most of a 10-K is boilerplate carried over verbatim; the signal is in what's new. These lines appear this year and weren't there last, figure updates filtered out, so only the language shift remains.
- “The decrease of 279 sites was primarily driven by hurricane activity in late 2024.”
- “Property Operating Expenses Property operating expenses, excluding property management, in our Core Portfolio for the year ended December 31, 2025 increased $5.8 million, or 1.0%, from the same period in 2024, primarily due to increases in Repairs and maintenance of $4.4 million, Utility expense of …”
- “During the years ended December 31, 2024 and 2023, we recorded a $ 2.7 million reduction in the carrying value of certain assets related to Hurricanes Milton and Helene and a $ 3.6 million reduction to the carrying value of certain assets as a result of property damage caused by weather events, resp…”
- “The overall decrease in net cash provided by operating activities was primarily due to an increase in cash outflows related to manufactured homes, net and accounts payable and other liabilities and decreases in deferred membership revenue and cash inflows related to business interruption insurance p…”
- “The overall decrease in net cash used in financing activities was primarily due to a decrease in cash inflows related to gross proceeds from the issuance of common stock and an increase in net term loan activity, partially offset by increases in principal payments and mortgage debt repayment and dis…”
Classic text analysis over the filing itself, no model wrote a word of this, and every quote is the company's own.
Peers, Real estate
The same industry, side by side on the REIT lens, compare, don't rank by a single number.● marks best in the group.
| Company | Revenue | FFO margin | FFO / assets | Payout (FFO) | Debt / assets |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| MAAMid-america Apartment Communities, Inc. | $2.2B | 48% | 8.9% | 66% | — |
| KIMKimco Realty Corporation | $2.1B | 52% | 5.7% | 64% | 39% |
| WPCW. P. Carey Inc. | $1.7B | 47% | 4.5% | 98% | 48% |
| GLPIGaming and Leisure Properties, Inc. | $1.6B | 69% | 8.6% | 79% | 56% |
| REGRegency Centers Corporation | $1.6B | 58% | 7.0% | 56% | 36% |
| ELSEquity Lifestyle Properties, Inc. | $1.5B | 40% | 10.6% | 64% | 58% |
| FRTFederal Realty Investment Trust | $1.3B | 54% | 7.5% | — | 54% |
| AMTAmerican Tower Corp. | $936M | — | 7.2% | 70% | 67% |