Mid-America Apartment Communities, Inc.

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the MAA first quarter 2026 earnings conference call. During the presentation, all participants will be in a listen-only mode. Afterward, the company will conduct a question and answer session. As a reminder, this conference call is being recorded today, April 30, 2026, and in consideration of time, we have a one-question limit. I will now turn the call over to Andrew Schaefer, Senior Vice President, Treasurer, and Director of Capital Markets at MAA for opening comments.

Thank you, Regina, and good morning, everyone. This is Andrew Schaefer, Treasurer and Director of Capital Markets for MAA. Members of the management team participating on the call this morning are Brad Hill, Tim Argo, Clay Holder, and Rob DelFrori. Before we begin with prepared comments this morning, I want to point out that as part of this discussion, company management will be making forward-looking statements. Actual results may differ materially from our projections. We encourage you to refer to the forward-looking statement section in yesterday's earnings release and our 34-act filings with the SEC, which describe risk factors that may impact future results. During this call, we will also discuss certain non-GAAP financial measures. A presentation of the most directly comparable GAAP financial measures, as well as reconciliations of the differences between non-GAAP and comparable GAAP measures, can be found in our earnings release and supplemental financial data. Our earnings release and supplement are currently available on the For Investors page of our website at www.maac.com. A copy of our prepared comments and an audio recording of this call will also be available on our website later today. After some brief prepared comments, the management team will be available to answer questions. When we get to Q&A, please be respectful of everyone's time and attempt to complete our call within one hour due to other earnings calls today. We will limit questions to one per analyst. We ask that you rejoin the queue if you have any follow-up questions or additional items to discuss. I will now turn the call over to Brad.

Well, thanks, Andrew, and good morning, everyone. As highlighted in our release, we delivered first quarter results that exceeded our expectations, driven by the resilient demand in our footprint, strong resident retention, as well as our focus on expense management and some timing-related items. New lease pricing continued to reflect supply pressure in several markets, but despite this pressure, new lease pricing improved sequentially. And supported by our continued strong renewal performance, Blended lease over lease pricing improved 140 basis points from the fourth quarter. With the bulk of the leasing season ahead, we'd like our positioning and momentum going into summer with stable occupancy and better 60-day exposure than a year ago. Our high-growth markets are producing solid demand to absorb the new supply in a steady manner that we believe will enable continued stable occupancy, favorable renewal pricing, strong collections, and overall earnings performance in line with the outlook we provided in our prior guidance. Our leasing traffic remains strong and positive migration trends, strong wage growth and stable employment conditions across our diversified portfolio and markets combined to drive solid demand as evidenced by first quarter absorption exceeding new supply deliveries in our footprint. Operationally, our on-site teams, actively supported by our asset management team, continue to execute at a high level, controlling expenses while delivering an excellent resident experience as reflected in our sector-leading Google scores. As a result of our strong customer service and the ongoing single-family affordability challenges, renewals remain consistent, helping to deliver year-over-year blended lease improvement for five consecutive quarters. We continue to allocate capital in a balanced and disciplined manner, taking advantage of the current pricing dislocation of our existing portfolio in the public market to buy back shares, as well as executing on initiatives to deliver long-term earnings growth while protecting our strong balance sheet. With acquisition cap rates around four and a half for high quality properties in our footprint, our external growth efforts are predominantly focused on new development through our existing pipeline of owned and controlled land sites representing over 4,300 units of future growth. We started construction on our first project for the year in April, a 286 unit community in the Kansas City market. Based on our current approval and construction timelines, we now expect to start construction on four projects this year, reducing our expected development spend for the year to $350 million. While this is down from the $400 million in our original forecast, it's up from the $315 million we invested in the two projects we started in 2025. The projects we expect to start this year will deliver in 2028 and 2029, during what we believe will be a more favorable supply-demand environment. As we look forward, we remain encouraged by underlying demand across our markets, declining new deliveries, and the strength of our resident base with continued strong collections and affordable rents at a 20% rent-to-income ratio. Our high-growth markets continue to offer attractive long-term appeal for employers, households, and investors. With positive absorption, stable demand, and market-level occupancies improving, We are optimistic we will continue to build momentum through the spring and summer, supporting improved new lease pricing as the year progresses. In addition to capturing increased organic growth from our existing asset base through the year, we expect a growing NOI contribution from a number of areas, including new initiatives to drive efficiencies and higher operating margin from our existing portfolio, our growing redevelopment opportunities, as well as a growing development pipeline that continues to lease up. Today, we believe our more diversified and higher quality portfolio, our stronger operating platform, and our stronger balance sheet position us to capture improving performance and to deliver meaningful shareholder value over the approaching recovery cycle. We're excited about the outlook over the next few years. To all our associates across our properties and corporate offices, thank you for your continued dedication and focus. And with that, I'll turn the call over to Tim.