Essex Property Trust, Inc. (ESS) CEO Michael Schall on Q1 2022 Results - Earnings Call Transcript

Essex Property Trust, Inc. (NYSE:ESS) Q1 2022 Results Conference Call April 27, 2022 2:00 PM ET

Company Participants

Michael Schall - President, CEO

Angela Kleiman - COO

Barb Pak - EVP, CFO

Conference Call Participants

Alexander Goldfarb - Piper Sandler

Jeff Spector - Bank of America

Nick Joseph - Citi

Rich Hill - Morgan Stanley

Steve Sakwa - Evercore

Austin Wurschmidt - KeyBanc

John Kim - BMO Capital Markets

Brad Heffern - RBC Capital Markets

Rich Anderson - SMBC

John Pawlowski - Green Street

Neil Malkin - Capital One Securities

Chandni Luthra Newton - Goldman Sachs

Nick Yulico - Scotiabank

Operator

Good day, and welcome to the Essex Property Trust First Quarter 2022 Earnings Conference Call.

As a reminder, today's conference call is being recorded. Statements made on this conference call regarding expected operating results and other future events are forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. Forward-looking statements are made based on current expectations, assumptions and beliefs as well as information available to the company at this time.

A number of factors could cause actual results to differ materially from those anticipated. Further information about these risks can be found on the company's filings with the SEC.

It is now my pleasure to introduce your host, Mr. Michael Schall, President and Chief Executive Officer for Essex Property Trust. Thank you, Mr. Schall. You may begin.

Michael Schall

Thank you for joining us today, and welcome to our first quarter earnings conference call. Angela Kleiman and Barb Pak will follow me with prepared remarks and Adam Berry is here for Q&A.

Today, I will comment on our first quarter results recent housing demand and supply trends and a brief overview of the apartment transaction market. We are pleased to announce our fourth consecutive quarter of improving core FFO per share and same-store revenue growth with this quarter's core FFO exceeding our guidance midpoint by $0.07 per share.

As mentioned in our earnings release, our results and rent growth trajectory support an increase in core FFO and same-property revenue guidance for the year, which Barb will review shortly. Overall, rents have continued to improve. And as of April 2022, net effective rents in the Essex markets are now 11.4% above pre-COVID rent levels and up 22% compared to one year ago.

All of our markets have positive sequential rent growth with Northern California leading the portfolio, improving sequentially by approximately 3% in each month of the first quarter. We expect further improvement in Northern California as progress is made on return to office programs for the large technology companies following several COVID-related delays. The top tech companies also continue to hire rapidly in the Essex markets with over 50,000 job openings posted for California and Washington, a 79% increase compared to March of 2020.