The Rising 1K Power Ranking honors and celebrates multifamily properties that have transformed their online reputation as measured by their individual online reputation assessment (ORA) scores and registered the most notable gain in their ORA since January. We first introduced this ranking in 2023.
Including ties in ORA scores, 1,144 properties made this year’s 2025 Rising 1K list. The properties included in the 2025 list needed a minimum 14-point increase in their ORA score from January to October. In the event of a tie in ORA point improvement, properties are ranked by their October ORA score, followed by review volume.
The 2025 Rising 1K Ranking: Top Two Properties
The No. 1 property to register the highest leap in ORA is University Trails Apartments in Ann Arbor, Michigan. The property improved its ORA score by 52 points, from a 28 ORA score in January to 80 in October.
The second property to post a big gain is Wildewood Commons, managed by Artisan Management Group, in Ralston, Nebraska. The property increased its ORA score by 45 points, from 25 in January to 70 in October.
Complete List
The top 100 properties to register a 26-point gain in ORA score are listed below. For the complete list of properties in this ranking, visit 2025 Rising 1K.
“ORA improvement is a critical performance metric in today’s reputation-driven rental market. Raising your score requires discipline by reducing complaint volume in core multifamily operational areas like customer service, maintenance, and condition of the property, and creating more positive resident interactions,” says Peyton Box, manager of business analytics consulting at J Turner Research. “The Rising 1K ranking highlights the properties that executed on these fundamentals and saw measurable gains.”
The 2025 Rising 1K Properties: Success Factors
In determining the factors that led to the dramatic strides in online reputation, we analyzed the lifetime reviews, upward of 111,000, for the 2025 Rising 1K properties to identify the factors that helped them increase their ORA score. Our goal was to identify the operational drivers behind their ORA score improvement.
In this analysis, we used Thought Analysis, J Turner Research’s proprietary artificial intelligence, and Einstein, our proprietary text categorization tool, to objectively aggregate the compliments and complaints from online review comments into the 22 operational categories valued most by apartment residents.
Below are the key factors contributing to the success of the 2025 Rising 1K properties:
- Laser-sharp focus on reducing complaints in operational areas that matter most to residents.
Across all the 22 operational areas tracked by Einstein, these properties collectively reduced complaints in every single category.
Overall, the average property saw the number of their reviews with a complaint drop by 59.6%.
These properties made tremendous improvement in these six categories (sorted by reduction in complaints):
- Exterior lighting (-75.24%)
- Pests (-74.31%)
- Security (-72.43%)
- Condition of the unit (-69.58%)
- Landscaping and grounds (-68.39%)
- Financial clarity (-68.35%)
“Findings from our recently released study, ‘Why Star Ratings are No Longer Enough,’ indicate that pests, security, and financial clarity are the three most predictive categories of prospect behavior and resident satisfaction. The fact that these Rising 1K properties so greatly reduced complaints in these three areas, and succeeded in improving their ORA scores, further validates our research,” notes vice president Turner Batdorf.
He adds, “Looking ahead, in 2026, we are incorporating the relevance of all 22 categories into our enhanced ORA model. Properties that continue to focus on improving in the most significant operational areas can expect an even faster growth and higher ranking under the new algorithm to ensure it even further aligns with bottom-line performance.”
- Significant increase in reviews positively mentioning certain operational areas.
- Maintenance service (41.5%)
- Customer service (33.4%)
- Communication (24.6%)
- Maintenance timeliness (17%)
Noteworthy Statistics for the 2025 Rising 1K Ranking
- 41% of all properties improved their ORA scores from January to October.
- 3% of properties increased by at least 10 points.
- Breakdown of ORA score increase: Over 25 points, less than 1% (181 properties); 21 to 25 points, less than 1% (207 properties); 16 to 20 points, 1% (643 properties); 11 to 15 points, 4%; 6 to 10 points, 13%; 1 to 5 points, 81%.
About the ORA Power Rankings
Developed by J Turner Research, the ORA Power Rankings are a monthly, independent ranking of apartment properties and management companies based on their ORA scores. A property or management company is not required to be a J Turner Research client to qualify for this ranking, which is published by J Turner’s media partner Multifamily Executive. To learn more or to request your ORA score, visit www.jturnerresearch.com/about/what-is-ora-score.
Methodology
The ORA score is an aggregate compilation of a property’s ratings across various review sites and ILSs. Each month, J Turner Research monitors online ratings of over 150,000 properties nationwide. Using a statistical model, a single score based on a scale of 0 to 100 is assigned to each property. This score serves as a benchmark to compare a company’s individual properties and portfolios nationally, regionally, and against the competition.