Toyota Motor has a rare problem for an automaker: There is so much demand for its new RAV4 and the inventory is so limited that dealers only have a few days’ supply.

“It is really unusual to see cars fly off the dealers’ lots like this,” said Jessica Caldwell, head of product insight at Edmunds. “It is not something that exists in that very practical, very suburban, small-midsize crossover segment.”

At Colonial Toyota in Milford, Connecticut, the lack of RAV4s has left owner Bobby Crabtree with several open spots for new vehicles at his dealership.

“This lot can handle another 250 vehicles, so I am probably about a third full of that capacity,” Crabtree said as he looked out at scores of new and used Toyotas.

Not all of those open spaces would be filled with new RAV4s during normal times, but there certainly would be more, he said.

Toyota’s RAV4 has been a red-hot model over the past several years, with almost 480,000 sold in the U.S. last year. It was the third best-selling model in the country in 2025 behind the Ford F-150 and Chevrolet Silverado, two full-size pickups that have been top sellers for years, according to Cox Automotive.

When Toyota announced it would be rolling out new versions of the RAV4, two things stood out. First, the crossover utility vehicle would only be sold as a hybrid. Second, production would be limited at first and then steadily increase. In other words, there would not be the normal allotment of new RAV4s at dealerships.

That has not stopped buyers like Nancy and Ira Berman of Danbury, Connecticut. When they ordered their RAV4 in March, they knew they would be waiting a while before they got their new SUV.

“The wait was a slight annoyance,” said Nancy Berman. “It didn’t stop us from going and doing this because we do have our other Toyotas to drive.”

Six months after placing their order, the Bermans will soon get their new RAV4.

For Toyota, the shift to an all-hybrid RAV4 lineup comes as more buyers are pivoting to those types of cars due to gas prices that remain elevated. In 2026, more than 18% of the vehicles sold in the U.S. have been hybrids, according to J.D. Power, still well behind the 75% of vehicles with internal combustion engines but above the 7% of pure electric vehicles.

With dealers unable to stock their lots with new RAV4s and customers being told they will have to wait weeks or perhaps even months for a vehicle, it raises the question of whether Toyota could lose sales. So far, Toyota’s U.S. sales in 2026 are still up 0.3% through July. Given the appeal of the RAV4, Caldwell said the impact of dealers having a limited supply is likely limited.

“There are other vehicles within the Toyota lineup that consumers can go to,” Caldwell said. “Toyota has a lot of brand loyalty, people who buy a Toyota usually stay with Toyota for many years not just one vehicle purchase but several.”

From a warehouse just north of Chicago, Sarah Potempa – celebrity hairstylist and CEO of the viral Beachwaver hair curling iron – keeps thousands of viewers hooked for hours selling products on TikTok live.

This kind of livestream shopping, which has boomed in China over the past decade, is building momentum in the U.S. thanks to social media giant TikTok and live commerce platform Whatnot, which just reached a $20 billion valuation.

Beachwaver did about $8,000 in sales during the first four hours of a TikTok livestream in late July, which CNBC sat in for. She auctioned off limited-edition curling irons as her teenage son DJed behind her; demoed hair care products; and promised viewers she would shave her brother-in-law’s head live on camera if they sold 500 orders. 

It was one of hundreds of livestreamed shows that Beachwaver does each year. About a quarter of its $1 million in TikTok Shop sales so far in 2026 originated from livestreams, where the company hosts its own selling shows and works with affiliate creators on the popular social media app.

Reminiscent of the QVC craze of the past few decades, livestream shopping puts consumers in front of hosts who sell products in real time.

Now, QVC is live on TikTok for more than 200 hours per week across seven channels, according to the company, as it prioritizes digital after recently emerging from bankruptcy.

“QVC is a great example of a large established retailer that might have been seen as a competitor to TikTok shop … but in fact they have turned out to be a really successful merchant,” said Patrick Nommensen, president of strategic initiatives for TikTok Shop in the Americas.

Beachwaver got its start on QVC. TikTok and Whatnot have reinvented the wheel.

“Nobody is saying, OK, you have 10 minutes at 7 p.m. and get ready and here’s your 10 minutes and you’re done,” said Potempa. “You definitely need to be on longer on a digital platform, but you really are more in control of the revenue.”

Alibaba introduced Taobao Live in China in 2016. Within five years, the market crossed $50 billion, and it’s projected to top $1.1 trillion in 2026, according to eMarketer.

Live shopping has been increasingly integrated into Chinese “super apps,” which are utilized by millions of users and combine features like social media and messaging in the case of WeChat or artificial intelligence assistance, food delivery and travel booking on Alibaba’s Qwen.

“[Chinese consumers] still like stores, but they use the livestream part of the digital experience as the entertainment, the engagement, the inspiration,” said Globaldata managing director Neil Saunders. “In the U.S., we’ve tended to rely traditionally more on stores to fulfill that role.”

Saunders said that’s changing now as younger consumers lean more into live commerce to discover products.

Founded in 2019, Whatnot built its audience on novelties and collectibles. It’s grown rapidly over the past year, doubling its valuation since October. Whatnot ranked No. 8 on this year’s CNBC Disruptor 50 list, which identifies the most promising venture-backed companies.

Whatnot says it’s the largest live shopping platform in the U.S. but declined to share its domestic sales figures. The company told CNBC that a majority of the $8 billion in global sales it reported for 2025 were in the U.S.

“You can have [5,000], 10,000 people on Whatnot or TikTok watching your show at one time,” said Eric Pagan, who sells for brands on both platforms, during an interview in mid-August. “I did a show on TikTok this weekend that was well into six figures … I think what brands are not aware of yet is that that exists.”

Whatnot’s core focus is auctions, where viewers can bid on products in real time. TikTok rolled out live auctions in January. 

“It feels like things are really, really clicking and live shopping is becoming a bit more mainstream,” said Whatnot’s chief revenue officer, Armand Wilson. “In year one, it was largely all collectibles. … Now pretty much anyone can download Whatnot and find something for them.”

Legacy online marketplaces like Amazon, Walmart and eBay also have native platforms for sellers to host live shopping streams, though those platforms aren’t as inherently video-first as social media sites.

Amazon and Walmart declined to comment about their live shopping businesses, while a representative for eBay Live described the offering as making shopping “more human.” All three companies declined to share livestream sales figures with CNBC.

Mark Yuan, a former business development lead for eBay’s live shopping division and now the owner of e-commerce consulting company And Luxe, said legacy marketplaces benefit from the consumer trust that comes with how long they have been around.

“Those are the things you can’t buy with money, but unfortunately, what gives them the advantage also might be their barriers as well,” he said. “Structurally it’s very hard to transform themselves into a discovery-first or content-first [platform].”

But the platforms have their own set of challenges. Whatnot and TikTok have had to contend with issues of counterfeit and stolen goods. 

For the sellers, leveraging a large platform comes at a cost: Whatnot takes a commission fee of between 4% and 8% of sales depending on the product, and TikTok takes 6% — plus additional payment processing fees. 

And, the growing popularity of live shopping has made it harder to compete for eyeballs.

“The biggest challenge really is visibility,” said Globaldata’s Saunders. “You have to make sure that your feed is aligned with the algorithm and that it’s putting you in front of the right people.”

A version of this article first appeared in the CNBC Property Play newsletter with Diana Olick. Property Play covers new and evolving opportunities for the real estate investor, from individuals to venture capitalists, private equity funds, family offices, institutional investors and large public companies. Sign up to receive future editions, straight to your inbox.

Students are heading back to school across the nation and leasing student housing at a faster clip than they were last year. 

For investors, that creates new opportunities, but one leader in the field cautions that the differences in market fundamentals are widening across universities and regional markets.

On a national level, pre-leasing across the Yardi 200 — a curated set of the most important student housing markets, representing 90% of the institutional space — reached 89.1% in July ahead of fall move-ins. That is up from 88.1% in July 2025 but still below August 2025 levels of 89.9%. 

According to Yardi, 117 of the 200 markets surveyed in July were at or above their year-earlier pre-leasing levels, but there was significant variation across different markets. 

“New supply is increasingly concentrated in large markets, dragging down performance at schools with the most beds and weighing more heavily on national metrics,” wrote Tyson Huebner, director of research at Yardi Matrix, in the report.

Harrison Street Asset Management is one of the largest investors and developers in the sector, with more than $24 billion allocated across 432 student housing properties since its launch in 2005. Its investments total more than 238,000 beds across 200 university markets in North America and Europe. 

“Our conviction in student housing is really high, but our conviction in every student housing market is not,” said Mike Gordon, global chief investment officer for real estate at Harrison Street. “Frankly, I think that creates a really interesting investment environment.”

Gordon said there are a lot of investors trying to get access to the sector, but only a limited number of managers with long-term experience in it. Specialization, he said, is more vital than ever, because the differences between university markets have grown quickly due to funding cuts, enrollment and specific student demand. 

“Enrollment, applications, selectivity, research funding, student outcomes are increasingly concentrated at many of the leading institutions. Michigan, UVA, UNC, a number of the large public Power Four universities,” said Gordon, referring to the schools that belong to the four major athletic conferences. “Prospective students continue to value strong graduation incomes, alumni earnings, research capabilities, and many of the university markets that we focus on are really operating at or above 95% occupancy.”

He noted that housing supply has lagged enrollment growth at the universities in a number of these markets, specifically citing Virginia Tech, Auburn University and Penn State. 

“I think about the best university towns almost like factory towns where the factory is never closing. The university is the factory, and what it produces is intellectual capital. It attracts students, obviously, but also professors and researchers, entrepreneurs, companies that want to be close to that intellectual capital, and everyone needs somewhere to live,” Gordon said. 

Harrison Street acquires and develops assets on its own and through public-private partnerships with state universities. It has also been selling some of its assets given rising demand in certain markets. 

Earlier this year, Harrison Street sold a 12-property student housing portfolio for $910 million, one of the largest student housing portfolio dispositions in recent years.