Editor's note: This article is part of a three-part series ranking the financial performance of apartment, industrial and office real estate investment trusts during the second quarter. Click here to access S&P Global Market Intelligence's ranking of U.S. industrial REITs and here to open the U.S. office REIT rankings. To view these charts and calculations in Excel format, click here.
Camden Property Trust, UDR Inc. and Essex Property Trust Inc. were the top-performing U.S. apartment REITs in the second quarter, according to an S&P Global Market Intelligence ranking of financial performance.

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Camden Property Trust's same-store NOI growth and FFO-per-share growth both exceeded management's expectations, CEO Richard Campo said in the REIT's second quarter earnings release. Camden grew FFO per share 7.6% year over year, while same-store NOI growth came in at 4.2% for the quarter. As a result of its strong performance during the quarter, Camden increased the midpoint of its 2019 FFO guidance by 2 cents per share.
Camden also ended the quarter with the lowest debt multiples of the peer group, with net debt to second quarter recurring EBITDA at 4.0x and its fixed-charge coverage ratio — defined as second quarter recurring EBITDA divided by interest expense and preferred dividend payments — at 7.6x.
UDR, which came in second, grew its same-store NOI by 4.2% year over year in the second quarter, largely supported by the 5.2% growth in its western region, the company's largest segment at nearly 14,000 same-store homes in California, Seattle and Portland.
Overall, the SNL U.S. REIT Multifamily index outperformed the broader SNL U.S. REIT Equity index during the 12 months ended Aug. 26, with a one-year total return of 24.3%. Both indexes produced higher returns than the S&P 500, which ended the 12-month-period with a total return of 2.2%.


