Equity Lifestyle Properties, Inc.

Good day, everyone, and thank you all for joining us to discuss Equity Lifestyle Properties, third quarter, 2023 results. Our featured speakers today are Margaret Nader, our president and CEO, Paul Seavey, our executive vice president and CFO, and Patrick Waite, our executive vice president and COO. In advance of today's call, management released earnings. Today's call will consist of opening remarks and a question and answer session with management relating to the company's earnings release. For those who would like to participate in the question and answer session, management asks that you limit yourself to two questions so everyone who would like to participate has ample opportunity. As a reminder, this call is being recorded. Certain matters discussed during this conference call may contain forward-looking statements in the meanings of the federal security laws. Our forward-looking statements are subject to certain economic risks and uncertainty. The company assumes no obligation to update or supplement any statements that become untrue because of subsequent events. In addition, during today's call, we will discuss non-GAAP financial measures as defined by SEC Regulation G, reconciliation of these non-GAAP financial measures to the comparable GAAP financial measures are included in our earnings release, our supplemental information, and our historical SEC filings. At this time, I would now like to turn the call over to Margaret Nader, our President and CEO.

Good morning, and thank you for joining us today. I am pleased to report the results for the third quarter of 2023. The quality of our revenue streams and the strength of our balance sheet continue to allow us to report impressive results. Our MH portfolio is approximately 95% occupied. We have had continued success in the quarter selling new homes. Year-to-date, 51% of our new home sales have been in Florida communities and 13% in Arizona. Year-to-date, the mark-to-market increase for rent increase for new homeowners has been approximately 13%. Our team has done an exceptional job of selling available inventory, and we are currently at near record low levels of rental homes in our portfolio. Our communities continue to offer an affordable option to purchase a home amid a single-family housing market with limited availability and high price points. Today's national headlines highlight that homebuyers are grappling with housing affordability driven by a lack of affordable homes and rising mortgage rates. These broader national housing trends have enhanced the appeal of our communities for prospective homeowners. Two-thirds of our RV and marina income is generated from our annual customers. Core annual RV and marina revenue increased 8% compared to the third quarter of last year. Core seasonal and transient revenue for the quarter was impacted by an increase in annual site usage, reducing site availability, and weather-related property disruptions. Our social media strategy leverages engaging content, targeted advertising, and partnerships to expand our reach and boost customer engagement with our RV members, guests, and prospects. This summer was the ninth year of our 100 Days of Marketing campaign, which celebrates the time between Memorial Day and Labor Day. The campaign recorded 32 million impressions, the highest we have ever experienced, across social media platforms, including TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook. Turning to 2024, we anticipate continued demand into next year. Within our MH portfolio, we anticipate sending 2024 rent increase notices to approximately 50% of our MH residents. These rent increase notices have an average growth rate of 5.4%. For our RV portfolio, we have set annual rates for 95% of our annual sites. The RV annual rate increases have an average growth rate of 7%. Our Snowbird residents and guests are anxious to head back to Florida and Arizona for the season. Our teams are prepared for their arrival and will continue to focus on providing outstanding customer service. I would like to thank our team members for all their efforts this year to support our residents and guests. I will now turn the call over to Patrick to provide further details on our portfolio operations.

Thanks, Marguerite. As we wind down our summer season and move into our winter sunbelt season, I wanted to provide some additional color on the drivers of the 80% of our $1.3 billion of total revenue that comes from annual residents and guests in our MH, RV, and Marina properties. Consistently through the years, the MH portfolio has been the key driver of our business, with a trend of high-quality occupancy achieved by increasing homeowners. Today, nearly 97% of our occupancy is long-term homeowners who are typically with us 10 years or more. I'll do a summary around the horn on those markets collectively representing 70% of our MH portfolio. First, Florida occupancy is 95%. Florida is the leading state for net in-migration, and we see demand most directly in our east submarkets like Tampa, St. Pete, and Clearwater, and west submarkets like Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach, which are consistent with historical trends. Demand in east Florida comes from the northeast U.S., New York, New Jersey, and Massachusetts, which are among some of the top states leading on migration. While demand in West Florida comes from the Midwest, states like Illinois and Minnesota, which are also leading on migration. Given this demand, we have an opportunity to continue to grow MH occupancy, including through our development program. We developed more than 750 sites in Florida and have more than 1,000 MH sites in the expansion pipeline. Over the last three years, we have sold more than 1,400 new homes in Florida, indicating consistent demand. Our next largest markets are California and Arizona. Those portfolios are 97% occupied, and we have opportunities to convert rental homes to homeowners, marginally increase run rate occupancy, as well as grow through expansions. Portfolio-wide for MH, over the last three years, we've sold 2,600 new homes, enhancing quality of occupancy by meeting important demand from homebuyers. Moving on to the RV and marina businesses. Over the last 20 years, we added RV and marinas to our portfolio with a focus on long-term annual revenue streams that pay similarly to the MH portfolio. Our RV properties are predominantly located in Sunbelt locations, and our marinas are mostly coastal Florida and coastal Carolinas. Coming out of the summer season, we continue to see consistent demand from RVers, especially our core annual guests. As noted in the press release, our 2024 rate guidance for RV annuals is 7%. For perspective, average annual RV rate is approximately $500 a month, so the 7% increase translates to $35 a month, or a relatively reasonable amount for long-term annual customers valuing their leisure options. For the marina portfolio, we have continued to maintain an occupancy of 90%, and boat launches have been consistent year over year, evidencing consistent demand from our long-term marina customers. Those are the highlights on the drivers of the property operating results, with some market and property detail on our annual MH, RV, and marina revenues. Together, they represent more than 80% of our portfolio revenue, as well as the highest quality durable revenue streams at ELS. I'll now turn it over to Paul to walk through the results in detail.