UDR, Inc. (NYSE:UDR) Q2 2024 Results Conference Call July 31, 2024 12:00 PM ET

Company Participants

Trent Trujillo - VP, IR
Tom Toomey - Chairman and CEO
Joe Fisher - President and CFO
Mike Lacy - SVP, Operations
Andrew Kantor - Senior Officer
Chris Vans Ens - Senior Officer

Conference Call Participants

Eric Wolfe - Citigroup
Austin Wurschmidt - KeyBanc Capital Markets
Josh Dennerlein - Bank of America
Jamie Feldman - Wells Fargo
Daniel Tricarico - Scotiabank
John Kim - BMO Capital Markets
Rich Anderson - Wedbush
Adam Kramer - Morgan Stanley
Alexander Goldfarb - Piper Sandler
Linda Tsai - Jefferies
Mason Guell - Baird

Operator

Hello, and welcome to UDR's Second Quarter 2024 Earnings Call [Operator Instructions]. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. It's now my pleasure to turn the call over to Trent Trujillo, Vice President, Investor Relations. Please go ahead, Trent.

Trent Trujillo

Welcome to UDR's quarterly financial results conference call. Our press release and supplemental disclosure package were distributed yesterday afternoon and posted to the Investor Relations section of our Web site ir.udr.com. In the supplement, we have reconciled all non-GAAP financial measures to the most directly comparable GAAP measure in accordance with Reg G requirements. Statements made during this call, which are not historical, may constitute forward-looking statements. Although we believe the expectations reflected in any forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, we can give no assurance that our expectations will be met. A discussion of risks and risk factors are detailed in our press release and included in our filings with the SEC. We do not undertake a duty to update any forward-looking statements. When we get to the question-and-answer portion, we ask that you be respectful of everyone's time and limit your questions to one plus a follow-up. Management will be available after the call for your questions that did not get answered during the Q&A session today. I will now turn the call over to UDR's Chairman and CEO, Tom Toomey.

Tom Toomey

Thank you, Trent. And welcome to UDR's second quarter 2024 conference call. Presenting on the call with me today are President and Chief Financial Officer, Joe Fisher; and Senior Vice President of Operations, Mike Lacy; Senior Officers, Andrew Kantor; and Chris Vans Ens, will also be available during the Q&A portion of the call. First half results exceeded our initial expectations provided back in February due to ongoing solid fundamentals and the core operating strategies we continue to utilize to drive strong same store and earnings growth. Positive fundamental drivers for our industry include, first, year-to-date employment growth of approximately 1.3 million jobs has well outpaced initial full year consensus expectations. Additionally, year-to-date household income growth has remained robust at approximately 5%. Taken together, this has driven strong demand for housing while also reinforcing healthy affordability metrics. Second, more than 250,000 newly delivered apartment homes were absorbed nationally during the first half of the year, a near two decade record. Adding to that, total housing deliveries appear stable through the end of the year, and development starts continue to decline to levels below historical norms. This dynamic bodes well for rent growth in the years ahead. And third, renting an apartment is on average 60% more affordable than owning a single family home in the markets where we operate, the best level of relative affordability in two decades. These fundamental trends, combined with our operating tactics that have improved resident retention, led to revenue and expense growth outperformance in the first half of 2024.