Essex Property Trust, Inc. (ESS)

Essex Property Trust owns apartment buildings on the West Coast — in California and Seattle.

The bet on one geography is deliberate: building new housing on the coast is hard because of zoning limits and land costs, so supply barely grows while demand is underpinned by technology industry salaries. That shortage of supply is the source of rent growth.

The flip side of the same concentration is dependence on one sector of the economy and on local politics: layoffs at technology companies and remote work weaken demand, while rent control initiatives affect income directly. The trust form obliges distributing profit. Occupancy stays high through the cycle; what moves the result is the rent achieved on a new lease. The dividend has been raised for decades in a row.