Timothy J. Naughton
Analyst · Macquarie
Thanks, John. Welcome to our fourth quarter call. Joining me today are Tom Sargeant, our Chief Financial Officer; and Leo Horey, EVP of Property Operations. Tom and I have some prepared remarks, and then the 3 of us will be available for Q&A afterwards. I'll start by touching on some of the operating and investment highlights from last quarter and an overview of 2011. In addition, I'll provide a few comments about our outlook for the economy and our partner markets for the coming year. Tom will then discuss some of the financial highlights for the quarter and review our financial outlook for 2012. Lastly, I'll come back to provide some color on the press release we issued in December in which we announced the launch of 2 new apartment brands. Last night, we reported FFO per share of $1.19, which was up 18% over the prior year. In addition, we announced an increase in the quarterly dividend of 9% for 2012 based upon this continued strong performance and our outlook for 2012. Results in Q4 were driven primarily by strong same-store NOI growth atop 10% for the quarter, driven by same-store revenue growth of 6.2% and a decline of same-store expenses of 1.8%. Same-store NOI growth was particularly strong in California, which posted growth greater than 15% in both Northern and Southern California. Northern California continued to be our strongest region, while Southern California is still relatively early in its recovery, with Orange County and Los Angeles leading the way in that region. In Q4, we continue to be very active across the board in the area of investments. We started 4 new developments, totaling almost $500 million, and now have $1.5 billion underway. Two of the new starts were AVA communities, which is one of the 2 brands we formally launched last quarter. This brand, which is targeted at a youthful urban-minded demographic that craves the energy in the neighborhood, is ideally suited for the 2 neighborhoods where we began construction this past quarter, West Chelsea in Manhattan and the H Street Corridor in Northeast D.C. We also continue to replenish the pipeline in Q4, adding another 7 deals totaling $500 million in new development rights. Most of these deals are located on the West Coast, where fundamentals are showing the most momentum. We expect that we will continue to add to the pipeline over the next couple of quarters as we have another several $100 million dollars worth of development rights under contract and in due diligence. The economics of development remain attractive as the average projected yield for the $1.5 billion under construction is close to 7% or around 200 basis points over prevailing cap rates. In addition, the deals in our development right pipeline, as well as those currently in due diligence, add projected yields consistent with those under construction in the 6.5% to 7% range based upon current rents and current construction costs. As a result, we expect that development will continue to be an important driver of growth and value creation over the next few years. We continue to shape and reposition the portfolio in Q4 through transaction activity and redevelopment. Last quarter we sold 5 assets, 3 that were wholly owned and 2 that were owned by our First Investment Management Fund. Two of the wholly owned assets that were sold, Cameron Court and Rock Spring, are in the D.C. market and were sold for $220 million and an economic gain of over $120 million. Given the growing permitting activity and the uncertain impact of potential fiscal reform on the D.C. area over the next 2 to 3 years, we thought it was a good time to harvest value. Despite our recent actions, D.C. remains an important target market for us. And over the long term, we expect to increase our exposure in this market. Finally, during the quarter, we started the redevelopment of 6 existing stabilized communities, including 2 under the AVA brand and one under the Eaves by Avalon brand, which is a brand targeted to a more value-oriented and cost-conscious consumer. We currently have 12 communities under redevelopment that represent a broad mix of assets, containing all 3 brands, including 5 Avalon, 3 AVA and 4 Eaves communities. For the year, FFO per share was up over 14% and adjusting for non-routine items was up by around 16.5%. This was the strongest growth in FFO per share since 2000. We enjoyed this strong growth despite an economy that didn't live up to expectations as the year began. The corporate sector, now flushed with cash and restored balance sheets, was expected to lead the economy to recovery in 2011 but failed to do so, as companies became reluctant to expand their businesses as confidence faltered. As a result, growth in GDP of under 2% came in below expectations. The economy created only 1.5 million jobs or about half of what was expected at the beginning of the year and not enough to make a meaningful impact on the unemployment rate. Given this environment, consumers reacted in a predictable manner, reluctant to spend and focused on restoring their own balance sheets, as consumer debt fell to the lowest levels since 1993. Offsetting this tepid job growth and lack of business and consumer confidence though were a number of dynamics that benefited the apartment industry. Homeownership rates continue to fall another 50 basis points for the year and 3x that rate for younger adults age 34 or under. In addition, while job growth was quite modest, it was pretty good for this young adult cohort, up around 2% or about twice the rate for the overall economy. As a result, the rental household growth was much stronger among this important group of apartment renters, which contributed to strong apartment absorption in 2011. On the supply side, the apartment industry benefited from the lingering effect of the credit crisis of '08 and '09, as new apartment completions of 80,000 for the year were less than 40% of the average experience over the last 15 years. The combination of strong absorption and reduced deliveries worked in the apartment industry's favor in 2011 and helped fuel solid earnings growth in spite of the weak economy. With the favorable fundamentals that emerged for apartments in 2011, rents and valuations largely recovered to their pre-downturn levels. For AvalonBay, growth in FFO per share for the year was driven in large part by same-store NOI growth of 8.5%. While every region posted healthy growth, markets with greater exposure to technology outperformed, including San Francisco, San Jose, Seattle and Boston. We made significant progress toward some of our portfolio management objectives, with more than $1 billion of transaction activity. We added 8 communities in Southern California, trimmed our position in D.C. and recycled capital out of Boston, where we had a robust development pipeline. We took advantage of strong fundamentals and cyclically low construction costs by starting almost $900 million in new developments and close to another $100 million in redevelopment. We pre-funded most of these new capital commitments through a well-timed $750 million discrete equity offering in August and by year-end, had ample liquidity to fund all outstanding commitments. Our balance sheet is the strongest in the sector and is very well positioned to support new external growth opportunities, particularly as we build out our development pipeline of $4 billion plus. So now that 2011 is in the books, sitting here in early 2012, what are our expectations for the coming year? After the midyear slump in 2011, the economy started to regain its footing by year end, as GDP growth approached 3% in Q4. Improved job growth in December of around 200,000, combined with positive revisions in prior months, surprised to the upside. Business sentiment appears to slowly be improving as Moody's business confidence survey and small business sentiment have increased in the last few months. In addition, the consumer is in better shape than this time last year, having improved their balance sheets and confidence, while still fragile, has improved in recent months. While some elements seem to be in place to unstick what has been a stalled recovery, there remain some headwinds that will continue to temper overall economic output. In particular, the public sector, given its own fiscal constraints, has limited ability to provide any further stimulus. And the housing sector, where production levels should continue to run well below historical norms, will continue to be a drag on economic growth. And of course, as we saw last year, confidence can erode quickly, particularly in light of lingering global debt concerns. Overall, we were expecting still slow to moderate economic growth on the order of 2% to 3% and total U.S. job growth of around 1.5% or just under 2 million jobs in 2012. In terms of industry fundamentals, apartments should begin to benefit or should benefit once again in 2012 from a combination of gradually improving labor market, a weak for-sale market, favorable demographics and modest levels in new supply. Based upon the current level of starts, which has averaged an annual pace of under 170,000 for the last 3 months, new completions shouldn't pose a threat in most markets for at least a couple of years. In our markets, D.C. will be the exception in 2012, as new deliveries are expected to pick up in the second half of the year. Overall, we expect that demand will outpace supply again this year, which should propel operating performance and result in another strong year for AvalonBay. I'll now turn the call over to Tom, who will provide some financial highlights for the quarter, as well as an overview of how our expectations for the economy and apartment markets shape our business plan and financial outlook for 2012.