The Private Equity Stakeholder Project (PESP) just released an updated version of its Private Equity Multi-Family Housing Tracker, bumping its headline figure from 2.2 million to nearly 3 million units and claiming private equity now owns “1 in 8” American apartments. As Pinpoint has previously documented, both in our analysis of the original tracker and in our broader examination of PESP’s pattern of missing data and misleading analysis, PESP has a documented habit of generating headlines that don’t survive contact with basic scrutiny. The update doesn’t fix that. In at least two respects, it makes it worse.
Here’s where the updated tracker falls apart. PESP identifies Austin (31% PE ownership), Charlotte (33%), Dallas-Fort Worth (32%), and Orlando (32%) as among the most private equity-saturated apartment markets in the country. The implication, and the core of PESP’s narrative, is that high private equity ownership drives rents up and burdens tenants.
The actual rent data in these markets contradicts it:
In every market PESP singles out, rents are falling, not rising. These Sunbelt markets built a lot of housing, and supply works. As Pinpoint noted when reviewing the original tracker, Austin’s construction boom drove a 22% decline in median rents off its peak, an example PESP has now omitted from an updated report covering a market it identifies as ground zero for the PE “incursion.”
PESP’s “1 in 8” figure has two problems. First, buried in a footnote, PESP acknowledges that its 3 million unit count includes student dormitories, senior living facilities, and regulated affordable housing alongside market-rate apartments, the same conflation Pinpoint flagged in April 2025. These aren’t the kinds of properties at the center of PESP’s narrative, but they’re in the headline number regardless.
Second, and more fundamentally, PESP’s denominator is too narrow. It divides its unit count by approximately 23 million apartments, a figure drawn from the National Multifamily Housing Council that counts only buildings with five or more units. However, the United States has roughly 48 million total rental housing units, according to the Congressional Research Service. Use that number and PE’s share drops to roughly 6 percent. PESP chose the denominator that produces the most alarming headline.
PESP’s updated report follows the same playbook Pinpoint has documented across multiple reports: pick the most inflammatory framing, bury the methodological caveats in footnotes, and ignore any evidence that contradicts the predetermined conclusion. The policy recommendations (rent control, eviction restrictions, portfolio caps) are identical to those in the original and would, if enacted, directly choke off the investment and construction activity that is actually bringing rents down in the markets PESP claims to be most concerned about.
Policymakers deserve better than advocacy dressed up as data. PESP isn’t providing it.
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