Since the start of the year, the S&P 500 has entered correction territory three times before bouncing back toward recovery. This volatility has put investors on edge, making many concerned over a potential stock market correction. As unappealing as they may be, corrections are an inevitable part of investing. Rather than fearing what's to come, investors should take a patient, calm, long-term approach focusing on companies that are likely to recover quickly.
Camden Properties Trust (CPT -0.03%), Life Storage (LSI), and Digital Realty Trust (DLR 0.67%) are three real estate investment trusts (REITs) that fit this bill perfectly. Here's a closer look at why these special real estate stocks are bound to pull through in no time.
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1. Camden Property Trust
Despite volatility in the stock market, the housing market remains extremely strong as the decades-long housing shortage restricts available housing. Home prices rose 13.5% year over year in January of 2022, and rental rates grew 13.9%, with multifamily housing sitting at a record low vacancy rate of 2.5%.
Multifamily REITs across the board have benefited from this surge in demand and accelerated rental growth, but Camden Property Trust, which owns, develops, and leases multifamily apartments in the sunbelt of the United States, is in a strong position to profit moving forward. Thanks to an influx of residents moving to sunnier southern states, Camden has seen its rental rates growing between 14% and 15% month over month. Adjusted funds from operations (FFO), an important metric to assess the profitability of a REIT, rose 13% in 2021, with net operating income increasing by 4.8%. Plus, of its 58,300 units, its portfolio remains 97% occupied.
While today's robust rental growth won't last forever, there is security in knowing people will always need a place to live. With today's shortage of housing units and the location of Camden's properties, the company is bound to recover quickly from a market correction.
2. Life Storage
Self-storage is one of the most resilient industries to invest in because demand for storage space usually increases in times of distress or volatility. This fact alone makes it an attractive asset class to invest in during a market correction, but since it's also the highest-performing REIT sector for the past 10 years as tracked by NAREIT, self-storage is a no-brainer buy.
Life Storage is one of the longer-running self-storage REITs, having been in business for over 35 years. It currently operates 1,076 properties in 35 states across the country. Increased demand for storage space has helped the company grow FFO by 27.7% over the past year and increase revenues and net operating income by 14.1% and 19.4%, respectively. It's well funded, has $171.9 million on hand, and has low debt ratios of only 4.5 times its earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA).
Self-storage is still dominantly a mom-and-pop industry, meaning there is room to grow without risking overdevelopment again, something the industry faced before the pandemic. Plus, with inflation rising, it's one of the few real estate industries that can hedge against rising inflation because leases are executed on short terms.
3. Digital Realty Trust
Before 2022, there were not a lot of data center REITs to begin with. But American Tower acquired CoreSite, Blackstone acquired QTS Realty, and CyrusOne is being acquired by KKR, so the number of data center REITs is quickly dwindling.
Digital Realty Trust currently operates and leases 280 facilities in 25 countries across the globe. Demand skyrocketed for data storage, thanks to the pandemic pushing a large number of companies and services online. In 2021, operating revenues increased by 13%, net operating income grew a staggering 538% year over year, and FFO per share jumped 23%. Bookings, which are the leasing of data space, broke all preceding records in the fourth quarter of 2021 at $156 million.
The need for data centers isn't going anywhere soon. Our technological demand is increasing as we move into more cloud-based apps, software, virtual reality, gaming, and digital services. That makes Digital Realty a valuable investment.
Getting a deal on these REITs
All three of these companies have seen their share prices take a hit, with stock prices being down between 8% and 22% at the time of this writing. This isn't necessarily the company's fault -- high-quality stocks aren't immune to market dips. But there is comfort in knowing the company's business model, operation, and leadership team will help share prices recover quickly. All three of these stocks were great buys before the 2021 rollercoaster stock movements and will continue to be well after. Look at today's discounted prices as a great opportunity to snag shares in a worthwhile long-term investment.
