Camden chief delves into apartment market
Ric Campo’s office is adorned with Super Bowl LI memorabilia: autographed footballs, a helmet and an oversized painting of the area around the downtown convention center done by the urban street painter who goes by Gonzo 247. Campo, who was host committee chairman for last year’s Super Bowl, is one of the city’s fiercest boosters. He serves on boards for a number of economic development and business organizations and is the former chairman of Houston First, the city’s convention arm. He also runs publicly traded Camden Property Trust, a Houston-based real estate investment trust that has ownership in and operates 158 apartment complexes across the country. The company is in the process of building seven more, including a highrise in downtown Houston. He spoke with the Chronicle about the local multifamily market. Q: How’s the Houston apartment market now that we’re more than a year past Hurricane Harvey? What patterns are you seeing in terms of move-ins and move-outs. A: We went from 93 percent occupancy pre-Harvey to 99 percent after Harvey. We leased on average 400-ish apartments between January and August. In the two days post-Harvey, we leased 600. Houston pre-Harvey was the worst market in America for Camden. Then in the post-Harvey fourth quarter, it was the best. We knew people would move out. They’re fixing their houses. People started moving out after the first of the year, then much more in March and April, and in June we were back to normal. Now we’re averaging 95, 96 percent occupancy in our portfolio. Q: Do you still have flood evacuees in your complexes? Are any staying permanently? A: I have a few, but it’s not dramatic. A lot of people who went into apartments, they expected to have a poor