Intensified investment activity in the single-family rental marketplace has created a strong demand for specialized, analytical rental market data, according to Walter Charnoff, CEO of RentRange, LLC, a nationwide provider of single-family rental data and analytics, and the fastest growing company in the sector. Investment in single-family rentals has increased significantly in the past year, spawning organizations such as the Wall Street Journal and Morgan Stanley to label the segment as a new asset class.
“Institutional migration into this sector carries with it an abundance of opportunities, including a liquid disposition channel for servicers; an attractive vehicle for both debt and equity investors to re-enter the U.S. housing market; and a fresh supply of single-family rental inventory for displaced homeowners,” said Charnoff.
Rental intelligence—that is, rental pricing information based on formal, objective analyses—is an essential element of the single-family rental sector. Servicers require reliable rental information to evaluate investor-centric disposition options. Investors need market-level data to identify performing geographies, and address-level data to gain accurate perspective for purchase decisions. Objective rental estimates enable servicers and investors to achieve optimal pricing on rental homes and to accurately monitor rental portfolio performance.
RentRange spent five years developing the nation’s largest standardized single-family rental data warehouse, and released the first reliable address-level rental AVM. Prior to this, there had been no standardized repository of single-family rental data. Even national MLS information contained far too few transactions to be relevant as a stand-alone resource. Before RentRange, data was subjective, lacked data depth and quality, and failed to produce statistically sound results.
In response to growing industry demands, RentRange recently released its Macro Data Reports, which are available on a national basis at the MSA, city, county, and zip code levels. Reports are updated on a monthly basis, and are available for purchase at a one-time, bi-annual, quarterly or monthly frequency. A historical data trail of up to forty-eight months is also available upon request. These reports deliver timely, comprehensive market level data called for by participants in the REO-to-Rental marketplace.
