Munger Mode rating: 2 out of 5 — Sell. Our own rating from the research report below, on business quality first: moat durability and management, with price separating the top three.
Written in the voice of Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger, based on the Q2 2026 Form 10-Q (period ended June 30, 2026), the July 29, 2026 earnings release and call, and current market data. We have always said we like businesses a child could diagram with a crayon, and Essex passes that test on the first try. Essex Property Trust is a self-managed apartment REIT, structured as an UPREIT, that owns or holds interests in 258 apartment communities containing 62,881 homes, all of them on the West Coast: Southern California (Los Angeles, Orange, San Diego, and Ventura counties), Northern California (the San Francisco Bay Area), and metropolitan Seattle. It collects rent monthly on leases that run nine to twelve months, pays its operating costs and property taxes, services its debt, and distributes most of what remains to shareholders, as the REIT rules require.
Recent filings analysed: 10-Q (2026-07-30), 8-K (2026-07-29), 8-K (2026-05-29), 8-K (2026-05-14).
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