EQR, Equity Residential
The Company's corporate headquarters is located in Chicago, Illinois and the Company also operates regional property management offices in most of its markets.
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.
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, 2010–2019
realized figures from each filing, no estimates| 2010’10 | 2011’11 | 2012’12 | 2013’13 | 2014’14 | 2015’15 | 2016’16 | 2017’17 | 2018’18 | 2019’19 | TTMTTMMar 2020 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| RevenueRevenue | $1.7B | $1.5B | $1.7B | $2.4B | $2.6B | $2.7B | $2.4B | $2.5B | $2.6B | $2.7B | $2.7B |
| Net incomeNet inc. | $284M | $894M | $842M | $1.8B | $631M | $870M | $4.3B | $603M | $658M | $970M | $954M |
| Debt / assetsDebt/assets | 29% | 25% | 23% | 23% | 22% | 20% | 20% | 44% | 44% | 43% | 40% |
| Total debtDebt | $4.8B | $4.1B | $3.9B | $5.2B | $5.1B | $4.7B | $4.1B | $9.1B | $8.9B | $9.1B | $8.2B |
| Dividends / shareDiv/sh | $1.34 | $1.47 | $1.48 | $1.92 | $2.06 | $2.06 | $12.49 | $1.93 | $2.04 | $2.15 | — |
| Book value / shareBVPS | $17.99 | $19.23 | $22.80 | $29.66 | $27.45 | $27.51 | $26.78 | $26.77 | $26.51 | $26.70 | $27.71 |
Owner’s Scorecard
Is it a good business?
- Not enough data
Net income or depreciation wasn't found in the filing data.
- Not enough data
FFO or dividends missing.
Is it sound?
- Debt / assets 40%ConservativeTotal debt $8.2B ÷ assets $20.7B
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
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.
- Stock-based compensation$32M
The slice of the business handed to employees in shares this year, 1% of revenue, equal to 3% 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
reverse-DCFA reit / real estate isn't read on an owner-earnings DCF, its economics live on the balance sheet (book value, the return earned on it, and the cash the assets throw off). We don't force this lens where it doesn't belong.
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.
- Debt terms & refinancingBusiness
The fine print behind the debt. Covenants and near-term maturities decide who is really in control when a year goes badly.
“Financial covenants could limit operational flexibility and affect our overall financial position.”
From the recordBalance sheet (TTM)$8.2B heavy net debt · interest covered 892.8× - Litigation & contingenciesBusiness
Claims an owner inherits. Most disclosure is boilerplate; this fires only on an actual matter, a named suit, a settlement, a contingency, a number.
“While we believe the IRS would not prevail in any such dispute, if the IRS were to argue successfully that a transfer or disposition of property constituted a prohibited transaction, we would be required to pay a 100% penalty tax on any gain allocable to us from the prohibited transaction.”
A judgment, not a number, weigh it against the filing yourself. - Regulation & policyMD&A
Rules that can rewrite the economics, tariffs, antitrust, data, export controls.
“Worth (3) markets, consisting of 1,262 apartment units totaling approximately $338.0 million of development costs; Previously entered into two separate unconsolidated joint ventures for the purpose of developing vacant land parcels in the Boston and Seattle markets.”
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.
- “Interest and other income increased during the year ended December 31, 2025 as compared to 2024, primarily due to a net increase in realized/unrealized gains on various investment securities, interest income on mortgages receivable and an employment tax refund received in 2025 but not in 2024, parti…”
- “There continues to be an overall deficit in housing across the country, which we believe leaves the Company well positioned for the future as its resident base is more resilient to economic uncertainty, including elevated inflation, due to higher levels of disposable income and lower relative rent-t…”
- “Other expenses decreased during the year ended December 31, 2025 as compared to 2024, primarily due to a decrease in advocacy contributions, partially offset by increases in litigation accruals and the write-off of development pursuit costs and overhead.”
- “Competitive new supply was modest in most of the Established Markets, but remained elevated in Expansion Markets, resulting in a more challenging new lease pricing environment, although tenant renewal pricing was strong.”
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| BXPBxp, Inc. | $3.5B | 29% | 3.9% | 63% | 37% |
| AREAlexandria Real Estate Equities, Inc. | $3.0B | -24% | -2.1% | — | 36% |
| EQREquity Residential | $2.7B | — | — | — | 40% |
| SUISUN Communities, Inc | $2.3B | 83% | 15.3% | — | 59% |
| 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% |