TITLE:
The Impact of Macroeconomic Shocks on Mortgage and Equity Real Estate Investment Trusts from January 2020 to October 2025
AUTHORS:
Michelle Tang
KEYWORDS:
Real Estate Investment Trusts, Multifamily Housing, Macroeconomic Shocks, Seemingly Unrelated Regression
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Business and Management,
Vol.14 No.4,
July
20,
2026
ABSTRACT: This study examines how macroeconomic shocks affected the performance of two distinct types of Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs): Arbor Realty Trust (ABR), a mortgage REIT, and Equity Residential (EQR), an equity REIT, during the period from January 2020 to October 2025. Even though both firms are within the multifamily housing sector, they operate under fundamentally different business models, creating varying sensitivities to changes in interest rates, inflation, vacancy rates, and property market conditions. Using monthly return data and macroeconomic indicators including treasury yields, inflation, rental vacancy rates, and multifamily property price changes, this study applies descriptive analysis and a Seemingly Unrelated Regression (SUR) model to evaluate how each REIT responded to economic disruptions from the COVID-19 pandemic to post-pandemic situations. Overall, this study highlights how REIT structure shapes risk exposure and recovery dynamics during periods of economic instability. These results provide investors, policymakers, and researchers with insight into the relationship between monetary policy, housing markets, and REIT performance.