Independence Realty Trust, Inc.

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to Independence Realty Trust's second quarter 2026 earnings conference call. As a reminder, today's call is being recorded and the replay will be available on the investors section of the company's website shortly after this call concludes. At this time, I will turn the call over to Stephanie Krewson-Kelly, Senior Vice President of Investor Relations. Ms. Krewson-Kelly, please go ahead.

Thank you. Good morning and welcome to Independence Realty Trust Conference Call to discuss second quarter 2026 results. On the call with me today are Scott Schaeffer, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Jim Sebra, President and Chief Financial Officer, Janice Richards, Executive Vice President of Revenue Strategy, and Jason Lynch, Senior Vice President of Investments. Before we begin, please note that any forward-looking statements made during this call are based on our current expectations and beliefs as to future events and financial performance. These statements are not guarantees of future performance and involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially. Such statements are made in good faith pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, and IRT does not undertake to update them except as may be required by law. Please refer to IRT's press release, supplemental information, and filings with the SEC for further information about these risks. A copy of IRT's earnings press release and supplemental information is attached to IRT's current report on the Form 8-K that is available in the Investors section of our website. They contain reconciliations of non-GAAP financial measures referenced on this call to the most direct comparable GAAP financial measure. With that, it's my pleasure to turn the call over to Scott Schaeffer.

Thanks, Stephanie, and thank you all for joining us this morning. I am pleased to report that operating momentum is building across our portfolio as market conditions continue to improve. As our results demonstrate, rental rate growth has improved throughout the year, driving a 120 basis point sequential improvement in new lease rates during the second quarter, with further improvement in July. Additionally, as of today, with 65% of new lease activity completed for the month of August, new lease spreads for like-kind leases are slightly positive. The consistent upward trajectory in leasing spreads is a clear signal that our markets are in recovery, which, when combined with the new Wi-Fi revenue stream that we've established, supports our confidence and our guidance for same-store revenue growth. As expected, the volume of new deliveries has declined in our markets, and macroeconomic drivers of demand continue to outpace national averages. Recent employment data continues to highlight healthcare as the primary driver of national job gains over the past year. This is visible across our footprint. Thank you for joining us. Good School Districts, proximity to essential retail and employment centers with monthly rents that are meaningfully less than new construction continues to attract and retain residents. Bearing this point, the steady improvement in market conditions has resulted in greater lead generation volumes over last year and a decrease in concession use. Importantly, overall market occupancies across our portfolio have generally reached levels that support market-wide rent growth. The combination of durable demand, rising market rents, and normalizing concessions has driven sequential improvement in rental rates that I mentioned earlier. New lease tradeouts for like-term leases at our Midwest communities were positive 2.3% in the second quarter and a positive 2.1% in July. New lease spreads at our Sunbelt communities were a negative 3.8% in the second quarter and improved 180 basis points in July. And in the West, new lease tradeouts were a negative 3.2% in the second quarter and improved 340 basis points to a positive 20 basis points in July. Taken together, net effective rental rate growth in our markets is gaining steam. With the recovery that is upon us, rent premiums from our value-add activity will also increase. Because we perform a full repositioning of the apartment community, our renovated properties successfully compete with newer Class A properties by offering modern interiors and attractive on-site amenities at a lower price point than new construction, while delivering a mid-to-upper team's return on investment. Our approach to value-add renovations enables us to capture an immediate rent premium and benefit longer-term from lower repairs and maintenance and turn costs. The higher rents and lower operating costs realized on renovated units has expanded our NOI margins and boosted same-store NOI by more than 20% annually. Additionally, over the past two years, we have significantly decreased the time it takes to renovate units such that moving forward, we can increase the volume of value-add renovations without impacting occupancy, further benefiting future NOI growth. Lastly, as I referenced at the beginning of my remarks, during the quarter we successfully completed the initial phase of our community Wi-Fi initiative ahead of schedule. This new revenue stream not only supports our outlook for same-store revenue growth this year, but will also contribute at least one incremental penny of core FFO per share to next year's results. In short, our markets are in recovery, we are on track to achieve our 2026 guidance, and we are excited about the earnings momentum building towards 2027. With that, I'll turn the call over to Jim.