The conversation focuses on affordability, construction costs, interest rates, and homeownership. But there is another part of the equation that receives far less attention: what happens to housing after it is built, and who is responsible for managing it. According to the Federal Reserve Bank of St.
Louis, the national rental vacancy rate stood at 7.6 percent in the third quarter of 2026. That is not a market with zero available units. It is a market where existing units are not being used efficiently.
Some sit vacant because of long turnaround times. Others become uninhabitable because deferred maintenance was allowed to metastasize. I have spent most of my career in this industry.
I co-founded and built a property management company in New York City from zero revenue to tens of millions before selling it. I have seen what good operators do and what happens when management fails. The difference is rarely about the building itself.
It is about the capacity, resources, and standards of the business running it. For example, the NYC Department of Investigation reported that the current average duration of a NYCHA vacancy is approximately one year, with turnover taking four to six months, depending on the development. In a city with a rental vacancy rate of 1.4 percent, the lowest in half a century, that is a structural failure.
The management system cannot prepare them fast enough. I am not arguing that large companies are automatically better, or that consolidation should happen for its own sake. Independent operators are not the problem.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
