Mike Lacy
Analyst · Citi. Please go ahead
Thanks, Jerry, and good afternoon. As everyone listening to this call is aware, the pandemic has led to unprecedented levels of unemployment over a short amount of time, which in turn has led to widespread concerns about residents ability to pay rent. As Jerry mentioned, through the dedicated efforts of our associates and the physical response by federal government, April cash collections totaled 95.5% and 98% of our residents made some level of April rent payments, with 95% paying full. For comparison purposes, April 2020 collections were just 4% below April 2019. While may not be as well-known to those on this call is the web of regulations, federal, state, county and local governments have enacted or are likely to enact. These are wide-ranging, include eviction moratoriums, stay-at-home orders, restrictions on fees that can be charged, freezes on line increases, lease break legislation and restrictions on debt collections to name a handful. While each of these has impacted our business in one way or another, our market and asset level operating strategies in response that have remained surgical, as opposed to a one-size-fits-all approach. And by surgical I mean that we are working with and accommodating any resident that has faced financial hardship due to COVID-19 on a case-by-case basis, while ensuring our compliance with any regulatory action. I want to thank all of our associates for staying on top of these constantly changing regulation and adapting our strategies as needed. On the operations front, occupancy remains strong at 96.6% in April, which is approximately 20 basis points below the same period last year. Blended lease rate growth for the month of April was 2%, driven by solid renewal rate growth of approximately 5%. Retention is higher as annualized turnover in April was 720 basis points lower than last year's comparable period. As reported in our release last night, we experienced a 19% decline in traffic and a 15% reduction in applications on a year-over-year basis in April due to stay-at-home orders. However, we also saw our lease closing ratio improve to 54%, compared to 31% a year ago. I'm encouraged with the positive momentum in traffic, applications and signed leases over the past two weeks. To build on this momentum, we have implemented opportunistic approach here at each community, while our next-generation operating platform have allowed us to continue to drive traffic, execute leases virtually and take a more surgical approach to maintaining rent and preserving our rent growth. While it is still too early to understand the long-term impact, if any, the regulatory actions may have on our business. Some reset high-level operating trends we have identified over the past 45 days are as follows: occupancy in our B quality portfolio averaged 97% in April and hasn't declined much; A quality occupancy averaged 96% in April, but has and will likely continue to be pressured by corporate lease exposure and lower traffic due to shelter-in-place orders in key markets. Traffic and turnover have been slightly better at our B communities due to the more suburban nature of our B quality portfolio. Blended rental rate growth has been comparable between A and Bs. And we have seen slightly lower collections across our B quality communities. Highlighting some specific markets. Greater Seattle is one of the first markets afflicted by the coronavirus, yet our results through April are a pleasant surprise. However, due to recently enacted regulations in the state of Washington that mandate flat renewal growth for the foreseeable future, we are likely to see some forward rate growth headwinds. In certain urban coastal markets such as New York and San Francisco, we are experiencing a vacancy impact due to lower demand for short-term and corporate leases. Because of lower levels of traffic in these markets, we are facing reduced pricing power and are generally competitively priced on rents to increase leasing velocity. Orlando, Tampa and Orange County are our largest markets were tied to hospitality and retail-oriented deployment, and collectively represent approximately 20% of NOI. These three markets have seen some softness in both rents and occupancy as a result of relatively high exposure to service sector employment combined with a large amount of our portfolio in these markets being suburban and B quality. Finally, having previously worked in the field for a number of years, I understand how a period of extreme change can impact our regional and community leaders. Our associates have all worked well together to adapt to a new operating environment, develop targeted market approach and engage with our current and prospective residents. I'm proud of each and every one of you, have continued to exemplify the UDR values during this health and economic crisis. Thank you for all that you do. And now, I'd like to turn the call over to Joe.