BiggerPockets Real Estate Podcast
BiggerPockets Real Estate Podcast

Ken McElroy: 2008 Prices Return for These Properties

April 15, 2026

AI Summary

5 min read

Ken McElroy, who has owned properties through every market cycle of the last three decades, sees the current multifamily market as the best buying opportunity since 2008. But he warns that this time, the opportunity is not for beginners. The distress is not a Main Street crash of single-family homes flooding the market, but a slow, technical unwind of over-leveraged partnerships that requires operational expertise to exploit. Meanwhile, his wife Danielle McElroy, a single-family investor, is finding deals by negotiating aggressively with motivated sellers in a market where most homeowners are locked into low rates and refusing to sell.

The 2008 Playbook Doesn't Apply

Ken McElroy draws a sharp distinction between the 2008 crisis and today. In 2008, he describes a "Main Street crash" where three to four million single-family homes hit the MLS, causing a broad repricing. That crash was temporary for single-family, but it created a massive tailwind for multifamily: displaced homeowners moved into rentals, driving occupancy and rents up for years. "Everybody that started in the multi business after that, they looked like they were rock stars," Ken says, "but really it was just a shift from single mold over to multi."

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What you'll learn

  • 1 (01:01) **Welcome & Guest Introductions** - Dave Meyer introduces Ken and Danielle McElroy, who own over 10,000 units and are recording live from Scottsdale.
  • 2 (03:48) **Market Outlook: Why Ken is Excited** - Ken compares today’s market to 2008 and explains why he sees opportunity, not fear.
  • 3 (06:20) **Why Multifamily Distress is Unwinding Slowly** - Ken explains the delayed timeline for forced sales and distressed deals.
  • 4 (08:27) **Single-Family Market: Different Dynamics** - Danielle contrasts the single-family market, where distress is rare and deals come from specific motivated sellers.
  • 5 (10:48) **Finding Deals in a Tight Single-Family Market** - Danielle explains how she still finds cash-flowing deals by negotiating hard and targeting motivated sellers.
  • 6 (16:50) **Portfolio Strategy: Fixed-Rate Discipline** - Ken reveals the core principles that keep his portfolio stable through the downturn.
  • 7 (18:03) **Blood in the Streets: Ken’s Recent Deep-Discount Deals** - Ken shares specific examples of the distressed deals he’s seeing now.

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Show Notes

This is not 2008 all over again…but the discounts are looking similar. A “slow unwinding” is beginning.


Ken McElroy, a multi-decade real estate investor, owner of 10,000 rental units, and one of the biggest names in real estate, is seeing discounts…big discounts. Certain investment properties are being offered to him at 80% off peak prices, and, in his own words, the “blood in the streets” is becoming visible. Now is the time for ready real estate investors to strike.


We’re coming straight from The Ken McElroy Show set, live with Ken and Danille McElroy, both real estate investors, but seeing very different realities. Ken focuses on large multifamily while Danille buys (and helps her clients buy) single-family rentals. Even though prices have fallen (dramatically) for multifamily but not single-family, both Ken and Danille are seeing deeply discounted deals, if you know how to spot them.


Ken and Danille share their exact real estate investing buy boxes, guidance to investors starting in today’s market, the key to spotting neighborhoods with the best price growth potential, and the dangerous risk to real estate most are ignoring, a “canary in the coal mine” that Ken is paying attention to.


In This Episode We Cover

The almost unbelievable deals Ken is finding in the multifamily market (80% off)

Multifamily’s “slow unwinding” and why we’re seeing more distress in the market 

The two types of single-family properties Danille says have the biggest deal potential 

Ken and Danille’s multifamily and single-family buy box for 2026 

The

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