Samuel Landy
Analyst · Janney. Please go ahead
Thank you very much, Nelli. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us. We are pleased to report our results for the first quarter ended March 31, 2018. UMH's first quarter earnings for 2018 continue to demonstrate the success of our business plan. Both core FFO and normalized FFO for the first quarter of 2017 were $0.18 per diluted share representing an increase of approximately 6% year-over-year. Our normalized FFO for the quarter fully covered our $0.18 dividend. During the quarter we continue to increase our liquidity and strengthen our financial flexibility and balance sheet by issuing 2 million shares of a new 6.375% Series D Cumulative Redeemable Preferred Stock for net proceeds after deducting the underwriting discount and other estimated offering expenses of approximately $48 million. This additional capital will be used for general corporate purposes including acquisitions, expansions of communities, and for the purchase of additional rental homes. We anticipate continued per share earnings accretion once this capital is fully deployed. Community NOI rose from $13 million for the first quarter of 2017 to $14.5 million for the first quarter of 2018 an increase of 11%. Our same property results have continued to improve. Same property occupancy increased by 249 sites representing a 170 basis point improvement over the prior year period. Same Property revenue increased 6.5% driven by this occupancy again as well as rent increases to our residents. Year-over-year our weighted average monthly site rent increased 3.3% to $441 per site per month. For the quarter, same property expenses increased 7.9% primarily due to the harsher than normal winter resulting in increased snow removal, salary, heating, and water expenses. We expect expenses to normalize over the remainder of the year. Our same property NOI increased 5.4% for the quarter. These strong results continue to validate our business plan. It is important to note that our same property pool is adjusted each year to include the previous year's acquisitions. Most of our acquisitions are value add communities with low occupancy rates which negatively impacts our overall occupancy and our same property occupancy levels. Included in our same property pool for 2018, our acquisition from 2016 which were a weighted average occupancy rate of 74%. Our acquisitions generally take two to three years to turn around, but when they do, occupancy levels rise quickly, expense ratios decrease, and the community substantially increase in value. Our rental home program remains the most efficient way to drive occupancy and earnings growth. Manufactured homes as rental units expose new customers to our product. Many residents who previously resided in apartments, townhouses or condos are very complementary of the quality and lifestyle provided by manufactured homes and land lease communities. During the quarter, we added 165 rental homes to our community. Our rental home portfolio now contains 5,772 homes with an occupancy rate of 94.7%. This represents a 100 basis point increase over the prior year period. 34% of our occupied homes sites are now occupied by rental homes. Our average home rental rate is $732 which is an increase of 2.8% over the prior year period. After a 27% increase in sales in 2017, sales for the first quarter of 2018 were approximately $2.5 million, representing an increase of 32% year-over-year. Although, manufactured home sales have not returned to pre-recession levels, we are encouraged by the consistent increase in sales volume. The positive demographic trends and robust labor market continue to favor our industry. Conventional home prices continue to rise supported by low inventories and increasing sales. As household formation strengthens and for-sale inventory remains limited, a large share of housing demand will be looking at alternative forms of housing. We expect demand for manufactured home sales to increase further. We are very pleased with our ability to acquire communities in the competitive acquisition markets. The manufactured housing sector is one of the hottest real estate sectors. Our property type has finally been recognized as the relatively recession, resistant, and stable income generator that it has been for UMH for the past 50 years. Increased demand for manufactured home communities has resulted in compressed cap rates and increased property value. Since 2010, UMH has acquired 84 communities containing 13,200 home sites which have all significantly increased in value from improved operating metrics as well as the heighten demand for our product type. In 2017 we acquired 11 communities containing approximately 2,000 sites for a total purchase price of $63.3 million. These communities are performing very well and should positively impact our same property results next year when added to the pool. Our current acquisition pipeline consists of six communities with approximately 2,200 sites for a total purchase price of $75.5 million. We expect two of these communities with the purchase price of $20.5 million to close within the next few weeks. We are currently reviewing several other potential acquisitions. Our expansion program is progressing as expected. We anticipate building an additional 365 sites at seven separate locations in 2018. This includes approximately 50 sites at Memphis Blues, our all rental community. Phase 1 of this development which consisted of 39 sites became fully occupied in less than one year. This demonstrates the robust demand for our property type. UMH has a 50-year history of providing quality affordable housing for our nation's workforce. This year we were named Manufactured Housing Institute's Community Operator of the Year. This award recognizes UMH's long-term commitment to innovation and advancement of the manufactured housing industry. UMH was also awarded Manufactured Housing Institute's Land-Lease Community of the Year for the Midwest region for our Woods Edge community located in West Lafayette, Indiana. We are proud to receive both of these awards. They showcase our dedication to providing quality affordable housing at all of our locations. Our innovative approach of acquiring value add communities and embracing rental homes and upgrading communities has resulted in improved community operating results and also significantly increased the value of our communities. And now Anna will provide you with greater detail on our results for the quarter.